Wikimedia Commons Washington, Jan 23 (EFE).- Chevron Corp. hailed a District Court of The Hague ruling in favor of the U.S. energy supermajor in its legal battle with Ecuador, which had sought to nullify arbitral rulings handed down against the country in connection with a multi-billion-dollar pollution judgment. "Today's decision reinforces the integrity of the arbitral proceedings and ens...

Zinedine Zidane. Wikimedia Commons Madrid, Jan 16 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane said FIFA had made an "absurd" decision in barring the club from registering new players until July 2017 as punishment for its alleged breach of rules against the international transfer of under-18 players, predicting that the ban would be overturned. ...

CIMA Hospital in San Jose is often visited by medical tourists A slippery United States citizen of Persian ancestry claims that his health is rapidly deteriorating as he awaits trial in Costa Rica, and he is planning international demonstrations to call attention to his plight. Cyrus Anoushirvan Sepher, a Southern California resident in his early 50s, has been remanded to the San Sebastian ...

Alleged Greenwashing by Infinito Gold VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan. 15, 2016) - Infinito Gold Ltd. ("Infinito") (NEX:IG.H) is pleased to announce that it entered into a litigation funding agreement effective December 21, 2015 ("LFA). Under the terms of the LFA, the funder has agreed to provide non-recourse financing to Infinito in connection with the legal costs of Infini...

Guatemala/San Jose, Dec 28 (EFE).- The Central American Integration System agreed on Monday to carry out an initial "pilot humanitarian transfer" of thousands of Cuban migrants from Costa Rica to El Salvador, and later to Mexico, in January, after they were stranded in the region during their attempts to travel to the United States. The move was agreed to after a working group was set up that w...

A RE/MAX listing in Costa Rica What makes Costa Rica such an attractive real market for North American and European buyers? One of the main reasons behind this attraction is that real estate ownership in our country is mostly egalitarian and dynamic. For the most part, prospective foreign house hunters enjoy the same benefits as citizens of Costa Rica. According to the staff of RE/MAX Ocean...

With border controls getting tighter in many parts of the world, should perpetual tourists in Costa Rica worry about their legal status? According to Marcela Gurdian, founder of Immigration Experts Costa Rica, some incidents in 2015 should be carefully reviewed and considered by foreigners who have not formalized their legal status in our country. In 2015, the exacerbation of the European re...

San Jose, Nov 19 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- The Costa Rican government reported Thursday that foreign ministers from a dozen countries in the region will meet next week in El Salvador to find a solution to the emigration of thousands of Cubans trying to reach the United States, about 2,400 of whom are stranded in Costa Rica. "It was agreed that the convening on Monday,...

Press Release by The Costa Rica Star – November 15, 2015 – Quality of life and stability are just two of the factors that make Costa Rica very attractive for those interested in relocation and immigration. There are various options for residency and citizenship in this Central American nation and one law firm stands ready to assist foreigners as they embark on the voyage of residing in Costa Rica'...

Lasink technology COLOMBES, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oberthur Technologies (OT), a leading global provider of embedded security software products, services and solutions today announced that its cutting-edge Lasink™ solution has been selected by Costa Rica, through a multi-year contract to provide highly secure national ID cards. With the aim of providing its citizens with enhanced security...

Source: Immigration Experts A foreigner residing in Costa Rica can enjoy insurance coverage extended by a spouse without regard as to the immigration status of the insured. Such was the resolution issued by the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica, more commonly known as Sala IV, earlier this year. The Law Office of Immigration Experts Costa Rica has closely followed this case, which was re...

Deputy District Attorney for Perez Zeledon, Edgar Ramirez told reporters on Monday that prosecutors intend to appeal the Monday acquittal of Ann Patton, the US woman who stood accused of killing her wealthy husband John Felix Bender on January 8th, 2010. In what marked the end of her third murder trial, a three-judge panel unanimously ruled on Monday morning to acquit Patton. If the appeal ...

In her third murder trial, a three-judge panel in Perez Zeledon unanimously ruled on Monday morning to acquit Ann Maxine Patton, the US woman who stood accused of killing her wealthy husband John Felix Bender on January 8th, 2010. The same court dropped charges against Patton in January 2013 following her first murder trial, deciding it had insufficient evidence to convict her. Prosecutors a...

Ann Maxine Patton, the US woman accused of killing her wealthy husband John Felix Bender on January 8th, 2010, is scheduled to begin her third murder trial at 8 a.m. Monday morning. The trial will take place at the Perez Zeledon Criminal Court and is expected to last at least one week. The same court dropped charges against Patton in January 2013 following her first murder trial, deciding it...

On November 16, 2014, Gregory David Fischer, the 40-year old boyfriend of Ann Patton Bender, was found dead in his bed in Escazu, Costa Rica. According to his brother, Brian Fischer, “He was found lying peacefully in his bed with his puppy at his side.” Authorities have ruled out foul play in his untimely death. A heart or asthma attack is the suspected cause of death, according to authorities....

American citizen, Ann Patton Bender, who was accused of murdering her husband, John Felix Bender, in Costa Rica in 2010, has been moved out of the ICU, and into the women’s prison, El Buen Pastor, located in San Rafael Arriba de Desamparados, in San Jose. Ms. Bender has been sentenced to 22 years for first-degree murder, following an initial acquittal of the charges in January 2013, of killing ...

What if you heard a tale of a mysterious murder/suicide in an 30,000-square foot glass mansion, with 550 Tiffany lamps, 3,000 loose rubies, diamonds, and sapphires, a helipad, and a moat separating it from one of the world’s most rugged jungles – would you think this was a movie script, or the plotline of a pulp fiction novel? It happens to all be true, and it happens to have taken place in Per...

Ann Maxine Patton, the U.S. woman who was accused of killing her wealthy husband, John Felix Bender while he slept in their sprawling estate in Baru, Perez Zeledon in 2010, was found guilty of murder yesterday after a retrial and sentenced to 22 years in prison. The judgment was handed down at 3:20 p.m. yesterday by the criminal court in Perez Zeledon after a nearly two-week long retrial. The s...

Founder and Senior Partner Marcela Gurdian If you would like to apply for legal permanent residency in Costa Rica and have all of your immigration questions answered, contact Marcela Gurdian of Immigration Experts at her email: [email protected] or at her office phone: (506) 2290-8050. According to the recent Census statistics in Costa Rica, there are about 150,000 foreigners fr...

Ann Maxine Patton, the U.S. woman who was accused of killing her wealthy husband, John Felix Bender while he slept in their sprawling estate in Baru, Perez Zeledon, will face a retrial of the case after a court dropped the charges against the woman in January. In the original trial, Patton was accused of shooting her husband in the head, and charged with first-degree murder. Patton, however, cl...

Tenant laws in Costa Rica are pro-tenant in that even if a tenant refuses to pay rent they can continue to live in the property until the landlord exhausts all of his or her legal hurdles to evict them, a process than can take years in the worst case scenario. But that may soon change with the passage in first debate of a reform to the Landlord-Tenant law that expedites the process of eviction,...

The Perez Zeledon Court dropped its charges and absolved Ann Maxine Patton, who was suspected of murdering her husband, yesterday afternoon. After deciding it had insufficient evidence to convict her, the court set Patton free, and dismissed the charges against her. Patton, since her husband’s death, has always maintained her version of the events, stating her husband, John Felix Bender, had co...

Prosecutors and the District Attorney are asking for a 25-year prison sentence for U.S. citizen, Ann Maxine Patton, accused of killing husband, John Felix Bender in 2010 in the couple’s home located in Florida de Baru, Perez Zeledon. Since his death, Patton has continuously insisted that her husband’s death was a suicide gone wrong. Yesterday, during closing arguments, and based on expert te...

The defense of U.S. citizen, Ann Maxine Patton, on trial since Monday in Costa Rica on charges of murdering her husband, John Felix Bender, received a serious blow as a forensic doctor “ruled out,” the chance that her husband committed suicide. Bender died from a gunshot wound to the head. In her initial testimony on Monday, Patton stated that she did not murder her husband, but rather that Ben...

The trial of Ann Maxine Patton, 42, began in Costa Rica on Monday. The U.S. woman is facing first-degree murder charges stemming from the death of her husband, John Felix Bender. Prosecutors say the woman shot her husband in the head. The alleged murder occurred in January 2010, on the 4th floor of the couple’s mansion, located on a 5,000-acre estate in Baru, Perez Zeledon, in Costa Rica. The P...