Dammit, I’ve been so caught up with other work that I forgot about the December hearing of Sex.com thief Stephen Cohen – the first in six months after nearly two years in jail for Cohen.
It was always on the cards because of the strange formation of the law which meant that Judge Ware had to believe that continued incarceration of Cohen would cause him to provide more information about where his millions are hidden. What was always on the cards? That Ware would release him.
And that exactly what he has done. The hearing was 9am in San Jose on Monday. Cohen was out on Tuesday. I have all the legal documents here and will go through them in a second. But this is the bigger part – Cohen’s Mexican lawyer, an unpleasant man called Gustavo Cortés Carvajal and nicknamed The Toad was shot 24 hours later. And there’s a lot of reasons to believe that Cohen might be behind it.
If you understand Spanish, here is a link to an article about Cortez’ attempted murder. Cortez was boxed in by two cars and shot at – he survived but a four-year-old in the car with him was shot and died.
Why could Cohen be behind it?
Because Cortez was his Mexican lawyer. And it’s immediately occurred to me that it may be Cortez that was the mysterious figure that offered to give details of Cohen’s accounts for a 10 percent cut. I should have figured it out before but Kremen and his attorneys have always refused to discuss the identity of the person. Cohen would have known more than anyone and it makes sense that Cortez could have been the one – Cortez has no morals at all.
And he was in need of money. This year he was kidnapped and held to ransom. This happens occasionally in Mexico, particularly in trouble spots like Tijuana. Everyone assumed Cortez was dead but he paid a reported $1 million. So he was heavily out of pocket. He could have offered Kremen’s team a deal.
Why would Cohen not be behind it?
Cohen has never used violence to my knowledge. He was occasionally violent towards his wives, but he has been a very rich man for a very long time and I have yet to come across one example of him threatening or attacking anyone.
That said, Cohen did start making death threats from jail, and jail sent him a bit crazy. When I went to see him, he seemed quite composed, if a little out of touch with reality, but the filings he made to the court were crazy.
Also Cortez is a widely despised figure – he has lots of enemies in a dangerous town. It could easily be that he had to borrow $1 million for his ransomers and wasn’t paying it back. Or it could be that he persuaded his kidnappers that he had the money and would pay and then didn’t, so they came looking for him.
The Sex.com case
This focus on Cortez is not idle. Both Kremen and his private investigator have confessed to me that they are worried about what Cohen might do when he gets out. Cohen is a dangerous man, there is no doubt, and he has a history of chasing people he believes have wronged him. One ex-lawyer of his, Frank Butler – who Cohen also impersonated on a number of occasions – told me that he was amazed at how Cohen would set out to destroy someone he felt had betrayed him.
Cohen is out, he has his passport back I understand, and he will finding out who started informing on him while he was in jail. His wife handed over control of a shrimp farm, despite Cohen’s threats. His old friend Jack Brownfield was talking alot to Kremen’s attorneys, although they always remained suspicious of his information. Cohen’s daughter-in-law may have plea-bargained her way out of a long jail sentence for smuggling marijuana across the Mexican border, the details aren’t clear.
Where is Stephen Michael Cohen? Round and about somewhere. If he reads this, I’d like to take him up on his promise to give me an interview.
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