Pyramid mastermind faces US jail

COLOMBIA yesterday extradited to the US the mastermind behind a pyramid scheme that conned 300,000 mainly poor Colombians out of their savings.

David Murcia Guzman, looking calm enveloped in a bullet-proof jacket and surrounded by 50 members of Colombia special forces, was handed over to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at Bogota's military airport.

The DEA flew the 29-year-old to New York where he is to face charges of laundering up to $20 million, the proceeds of cocaine sales.

"My client is very calm. He is prepared psychologically as well as legally to go to trial in the United States and ready to go to the highest authority," said Ayd Trujillo, Murcia Guzman's lawyer.

Murcia Guzman was a wannabe actor from a poor family before founding the DMG pyramid scheme, so named after his initials. His closest contact with the entertainment industry was videotaping weddings. Yet after 2003 when DMG took off, he started to live in Panama, renting the entire floor of a hotel for $100,000 a month, spending time on his yacht and collecting a fleet of sports cars, among them a Ferrari, a Maserati and a Lamborghini.

Last month, Murcia Guzman was convicted in Colombia of money laundering and illegal enrichment and sentenced to 30 years in prison. If convicted in the US on money-laundering charges he could face 20 years in an American prison, after which he would be deported back to serve out the remainder of his Colombian sentence.