A legal fight over telecoms infrastructure in Central America has grown into a broader confrontation over jurisdiction, enforcement, and the limits of private arbitration. According to a new in-depth investigation published bySarawak Report, court rulings over this dispute in New York now appear to be running in conflict with criminal and civil proceedings across several Latin American countries, producing sharply different interpretations of the same events.
At the center of the case is Continental Towers, a holding company created in 2015 to manage a regional network of communications towers. The venture brought together Guatemala-based Terra Towers and Ohio private equity firm Peppertree Capital Management, with Goldman Sachs backing Peppertree’s stake.
Incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, the company was governed by a split board, a structure that later became a source of deadlock as relations between the shareholders deteriorated.
What began as a commercial disagreement moved into international arbitration in early 2021. Since then, the dispute has followed two parallel paths: a New York-based process focused on enforcing a sale of the joint venture, and a series of legal actions in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama examining allegations of misconduct tied to the same business relationship.
A $354 million award and two legal tracks
In March 2025, a New York arbitration tribunal awarded Peppertree and Goldman Sachs $354 million in damages against Terra Towers and its founder, Jorge Hernandez. The sum effectively matched the value of Terra’s stake in the venture. A federal court in the Southern District of New York later upheld the ruling.
Terra argued that it had been blocked from presenting witnesses, introducing evidence, or conducting discovery related to claims of board paralysis and an orchestrated takeover effort. The tribunal, however, kept its focus on enforcing a sale of the company, and those objections were rejected when the award was confirmed.
While the arbitration advanced, authorities in Central America took a different view. In Guatemala, prosecutors charged two executives associated with Continental Towers, Jorge Gaitan and Carol Echeverria, with breach of trust and theft of company records.
Both were arrested in 2025. Later that year, a Guatemalan court ordered the freezing of the New York arbitration award over Terra-related assets in the country while its own criminal case moved forward.
El Salvador issued Interpol Red Notices for Peppertree directors following allegations tied to a Terra subsidiary, including claims of misappropriated funds through false expenses. In Panama, legal actions were opened over investments made through Terra’s Panamanian subsidiaries that Terra says were carried out without proper corporate authorization.
Evidence that challenged the arbitration narrative
One of the key revelations highlighted by Sarawak Report involves photographic and electronic records that later conflicted with the version of events accepted in New York.
On October 5, 2021, Gaitan and Echeverria met in New York with the company’s lawyer, Adam Schachter. Photos from that evening show the three in a relaxed setting, including images of the two executives kissing while Schachter took the pictures.
Five days later, Schachter submitted testimony to the arbitration panel describing Gaitan and Echeverria as having fled Guatemala after being kidnapped, detained, and threatened by Terra’s chairman, Jorge Hernandez, during a meeting on September 28.
When a Guatemalan court later reviewed access logs and witness statements from that day, it reached a different conclusion. The judge found no evidence of forced detention, noting electronic records showing Echeverria leaving and re-entering the building multiple times during the period she said she was held captive.
Sarawak Report also cited WhatsApp messages from a group labeled “CT Arbitration,” involving Schachter, Gaitan, Echeverria, and another lawyer, Jean Paul Dechamps. Terra’s legal team argues the exchanges suggest coordination with Peppertree’s counsel, including references to sending material quickly so it could be used in arbitration submissions. Some messages, including celebratory remarks after favorable rulings, have been used by Terra to question whether the company’s representatives were acting as neutral parties.
Legal funding and a sudden shift
Another central finding in the reporting concerns the funding of legal representation for Gaitan and Echeverria. According to Sarawak Report, Peppertree and Goldman Sachs covered substantial legal fees for the pair, including invoices tied to matters outside the arbitration itself, such as Gaitan’s domestic custody dispute.
Those payments stopped in April 2025, shortly after the arbitration award was secured. One of Gaitan’s Guatemalan lawyers later stated publicly that hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees remained unpaid, prompting her resignation.
In a phone conversation described by Sarawak Report, Dechamps suggested that Gaitan had been naive to expect continued corporate backing once enforcement of the arbitration ruling became the priority, framing the shift as a practical decision rather than a personal one.
The next front: enforcing the award offshore
With enforcement in Latin America complicated by asset freezes and ongoing criminal cases, Peppertree and Goldman Sachs have petitioned the New York court to seek an order directing authorities in the British Virgin Islands, where Continental Towers is incorporated, to transfer Terra’s shares in the joint venture to them.
As reported by Sarawak Report, that strategy would allow the arbitration award to be enforced through the offshore holding structure, bypassing courts in countries that are still investigating allegations tied to the case. A ruling on the petition is expected soon.
The dispute now sits at the intersection of global finance, national criminal law, and private arbitration. Its outcome may help define how far arbitration decisions can reach when they collide with sovereign legal systems and strategic infrastructure interests.
Sarawak Report was founded by Clare Rewcastle Brown, an award-winning investigative journalist internationally recognized for her role in exposing the 1MDB corruption scandal in Malaysia, including Goldman Sachs’ involvement in the affair. Her work has been widely cited by international media, regulators, and prosecutors and is regarded as a landmark in cross-border financial reporting.