By Juan Montoya
We are in receipt of a demand letter from Olga Lucia Ramos Sajona through her legal representatives that we are named in a defamation complaint in Colombia.
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Who is Ms. Ramos?
She happens to have been the manager of the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation that former BEDC CEO Jason Hilts set up in Colombia, ostensibly to recruit businesses to come to Brownsville and set up shop and provide local residents with good-paying jobs.
Those jobs - despite spending close to $100,000 a year for operations including a $50,000 salary for Ramos - never materialized. Instead, Hilt's Colombian adventure produced a flurry of lawsuits against him and the BEDC that are still active in that country.
We reported on Ramos' sweet deal with Hilts and the BEDC, the junkets taken by a host of local officials including Mayor Tony Martinez, Filemon Vela Jr., and a long list of city, Port of Brownsville and State if Texas officials and bureaucrats. And we also reported that the BEDC office for which it was paying rent was actually Ramos' residence.
We also reported that it was common knowledge among BEDC staff, Martinez, and BEDC executive committee president Tony Capella that Hilts and Ramos enjoyed an intimate relationship. That much was corroborated by then-Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation legal counsel Mark Sossi, who also made the finding of his investigation known to the two men many months before Hilts resigned.
They ignored him.
When Hilts terminated Ramos under the pretext that she had forged an invoice from a Colombian company for $5,000 that he had urged the BEDC to pay by wiring Ramos the money so she could pay it there, the BEDC was sued in Colombia for labor violations.
There are three legal proceedings filed against the BEDC. The last filing (#05001311050152010063100) was filed in the 15th Labor Court of Medellin on August 3, 2017 alleging an unspecified labor matter and is still open.
The previous April 28, 2017, the BEDC was also named in the 18th Labor Court of Medellin (#05001310501820170035500) by Ramos on another unspecified labor matter.
The earliest labor filing by Ramos against BEDC was (#05001310501520160007300) was on January 21, 2016, also over an unspecified labor matter.
On November, 18, 2016 and February 2-17, hearings were heard for the January 21, case in the 15th Labor Court in Medellin according to online Colombian litigation records. However, it is unclear who attended - if anyone - on behalf of the BEDC.
A search of court records also indicates that Ramos filed a lawsuit October 14, 2014 against Hilts in the 14th Family Court in Medellin (#05001316001420140159700) on an unspecified family matter.
And as far as the forged invoice for $5,000 which Hilts used as the reason for her termination, there was no report made to Colombian or American law authorities. Fortunately, the invoice raised suspicions at the BEDC and the company which had allegedly sent it to the BEDC disavowed that it had sent it. Capella dissuaded the owner from reporting it to local authorities and said they would "take care of it" internally.
The $5,000 was never sent.
We haven't checked lately, but given Ms. Ramos propensity to sue, we will probably be named in some legal action for reporting these facts. In the lengthy denunciation against El Rrun-Rrun and your truly, she alleges that we defamed her, her moral integrity, personal security, her good name, her public faith and protection of facts in relation with us posting the terms of her contract with the BEDC.
In other words, she, through her legal reps, charge that we should have never published the terms of her contract with the BEDC nor her personal - and intimate - relationship with Hilts that resulted in the lawsuit filed against him in a family court in Colombia.
We have left the demand letter and complaint withe the Colombian Attorney General in the hands of our legal counsel and will keep our readers appraised of the proceedings. And we will file a public information request with the current board and legal counsel of the BEDC to find out whether that entity has incurred legal liabilities as a result of Ramos' legal actions against it in Colombia.
We are in receipt of a demand letter from Olga Lucia Ramos Sajona through her legal representatives that we are named in a defamation complaint in Colombia.
She happens to have been the manager of the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation that former BEDC CEO Jason Hilts set up in Colombia, ostensibly to recruit businesses to come to Brownsville and set up shop and provide local residents with good-paying jobs.
Those jobs - despite spending close to $100,000 a year for operations including a $50,000 salary for Ramos - never materialized. Instead, Hilt's Colombian adventure produced a flurry of lawsuits against him and the BEDC that are still active in that country.
We reported on Ramos' sweet deal with Hilts and the BEDC, the junkets taken by a host of local officials including Mayor Tony Martinez, Filemon Vela Jr., and a long list of city, Port of Brownsville and State if Texas officials and bureaucrats. And we also reported that the BEDC office for which it was paying rent was actually Ramos' residence.
We also reported that it was common knowledge among BEDC staff, Martinez, and BEDC executive committee president Tony Capella that Hilts and Ramos enjoyed an intimate relationship. That much was corroborated by then-Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation legal counsel Mark Sossi, who also made the finding of his investigation known to the two men many months before Hilts resigned.
They ignored him.
When Hilts terminated Ramos under the pretext that she had forged an invoice from a Colombian company for $5,000 that he had urged the BEDC to pay by wiring Ramos the money so she could pay it there, the BEDC was sued in Colombia for labor violations.
There are three legal proceedings filed against the BEDC. The last filing (#05001311050152010063100) was filed in the 15th Labor Court of Medellin on August 3, 2017 alleging an unspecified labor matter and is still open.
The previous April 28, 2017, the BEDC was also named in the 18th Labor Court of Medellin (#05001310501820170035500) by Ramos on another unspecified labor matter.
The earliest labor filing by Ramos against BEDC was (#05001310501520160007300) was on January 21, 2016, also over an unspecified labor matter.
On November, 18, 2016 and February 2-17, hearings were heard for the January 21, case in the 15th Labor Court in Medellin according to online Colombian litigation records. However, it is unclear who attended - if anyone - on behalf of the BEDC.
A search of court records also indicates that Ramos filed a lawsuit October 14, 2014 against Hilts in the 14th Family Court in Medellin (#05001316001420140159700) on an unspecified family matter.
And as far as the forged invoice for $5,000 which Hilts used as the reason for her termination, there was no report made to Colombian or American law authorities. Fortunately, the invoice raised suspicions at the BEDC and the company which had allegedly sent it to the BEDC disavowed that it had sent it. Capella dissuaded the owner from reporting it to local authorities and said they would "take care of it" internally.
The $5,000 was never sent.
We haven't checked lately, but given Ms. Ramos propensity to sue, we will probably be named in some legal action for reporting these facts. In the lengthy denunciation against El Rrun-Rrun and your truly, she alleges that we defamed her, her moral integrity, personal security, her good name, her public faith and protection of facts in relation with us posting the terms of her contract with the BEDC.
In other words, she, through her legal reps, charge that we should have never published the terms of her contract with the BEDC nor her personal - and intimate - relationship with Hilts that resulted in the lawsuit filed against him in a family court in Colombia.
We have left the demand letter and complaint withe the Colombian Attorney General in the hands of our legal counsel and will keep our readers appraised of the proceedings. And we will file a public information request with the current board and legal counsel of the BEDC to find out whether that entity has incurred legal liabilities as a result of Ramos' legal actions against it in Colombia.