Peppertree Capital Management, a private equity firm with offices in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, has been revealed to be allegedly providing financing and support to a wanted criminal in Central America.
The individual in question, Jorge Gaitan Paredes, is a Guatemalan telecommunications executive who was formerly employed by Continental Towers, but now finds himself under house arrest in Guatemala and facing an INTERPOL Red Notice for his arrest globally.
According to a former Peppertree Capital employee interviewed by this publication, the fund’s managing director John Ranieri has continued sending funding to Mr. Gaitan despite the revelations of alleged criminal activity by law enforcement authorities. In Guatemala, Mr. Gaitan is facing criminal charges related to industrial espionage and the theft of company files and property, which relates to a larger international arbitration dealing with the minority shareholders attempting an illegal takeover of Continental Towers, says the former Peppertree employee.
In El Salvador, Mr. Gaitan is also facing an arrest warrant on separate criminal activity involving the operation of the tower company Collocation Technologies, which is accused of corrupt dealings with the political figure Óscar Ortiz, according to reports published by the news platform Ultima Hora.
The media reports indicating that Peppertree is engaging in the alleged protection of Mr. Gaitan, despite his known criminal charges in multiple jurisdictions, is further complicated by his open admission before the courts in Guatemala that he is working for “a private equity firm located near Cleveland, Ohio.”
According to the former employee’s claims, Peppertree is depending on Mr. Gaitan in his former role as an executive in the tower company in order to illegally force the sale of the tower company to a related entity at a massive discount. “The only reason that Peppertree would take the risk of continuing to send money to a wanted criminal is because they are locked into this corrupted arbitration panel – they are running out of time before limited partners find out the level of risk they have been exposed to,” said the former employee.
Peppertree Capital Management did not respond to efforts for comment on these developments.