Romania extradites famous Chilean businessman wanted for fraud

Rafael Garay, a famous Chilean businessman wanted for fraud, was extradited from Romania on Wednesday. The plane that took Garay back to his home country took off from Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport on Wednesday afternoon, March 15. Rafael Garay was arrested in Romania’s Brasov mountain resort in mid-November last year, three days after an international arrest warrant was issued on his name for fraud. On November 19, the Romanian authorities placed him under house arrest. However, a month later, he was placed under preventive arrest after the Chilean authorities demanded his extradition. Back in his home country, Garay was an investment consultant and advised people how to invest their money. He even convinced people to give him money to invest for them. In the summer of 2016, Garay announced that he would shut down his financial consultancy company because he had cancer. He told his investors that they would get their money back plus profits after he would pull the money from a certain bank, but they had a big surprise when they found out that there was no such bank account. Thus, Rafael Garay allegedly managed to run away with some USD 920 million. The Chilean authorities started investigating him in September and later issued an international arrest warrant on his name. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com