Former Vargas manager arrested

The former business manager of Fernando Vargas has been arrested on suspicion of stealing the former world champion’s fortune. According to the Ventura County Star, Joseph Louis Pecora was arrested Monday on charges of grand theft by embezzlement and forgery after a long investigation. Vargas’ attorney Greg Ramirez told the Star that Pecora allegedly pocketed about $400,000 and lost millions by mismanaging Vargas’ financial affairs. Ramirez also said the Vargas family had to move out of their home as a result and Vargas might have to start training to get back in the ring.

 

Former world champion boxer Fernando Vargas and his mother are in a title fight that spilled into a Ventura County courtroom on Friday.
Vargas wants to oust his mother from her Oxnard home, which the former IBF and WBA junior middleweight champion claims is his.

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His mother, Alicia Romo, contends that in 1999 Vargas talked her into signing over her portion of the title to the property where she, her two sons and a 75-year-old relative live. Romo said she and her mother, who is now deceased, bought the house in 1979 when Vargas was a year old.
Vargas has refused to relinquish the title and has filed legal papers to have her evicted, she said.
“He is my son, but he is evil,” said Romo in an interview.
Vargas’ lawyer, Oscar Gonzalez, told Ventura County Superior Court Judge Glen Reiser on Friday that his client owns the house.
“He is the legal owner of the property. The title is in his name,” Gonzalez said. Vargas was not present in court Friday.
Romo, who represented herself during the eviction proceedings, told the judge that she purchased the house on the 3800 block of Anchorage Street when she was 19 years old.
She said she has paid the property taxes and insurance fees since the purchase. Romo said she has never paid rent to Vargas. Romo said she wants Vargas to produce the lease stating that she agreed to be his tenant.
Noting that Romo had recently filed a lawsuit contesting the ownership of the title, Reiser said there were questions about who owned the property. He ordered a stay of the eviction and wants this issue to be consolidated with the separate lawsuit filed by Romo over the title.
“I am not going to throw these people out in the street,” Reiser said.
In a tearful interview and visibly shaken, Romo said she was very happy with Reiser’s ruling.
“I never thought it would come to this. He has his money. He has his house. This is my mom’s house. This is something that me and my mom worked for.”
After the hearing, Romo said she had an appointment with the District Attorney’s Office to allege that her son is guilty of fraud.
Romo refused to talk to Gonzalez about the case after court, saying she is going to hire an attorney.
When asked why Vargas. who has earned millions in the boxing ring, would want to kick his mother out of the house even if it turned out that Vargas was the rightful owner, Gonzalez said: “That’s kind of a loaded question. It’s quite an unfair question. I think those are issues between Fernando and his mother.
“Fernando has been taken advantage of by many people, including his mother,” Gonzalez said. “They’ve been estranged for many years as a result of some financial improprieties that she undertook while she was his financial manager.”
Gonzalez said there is “some truth” that Vargas is having financial problems.
Romo said that in 1999, Vargas asked her if he could temporarily replace her name on the title of her home to provide proof of assets to qualify for a loan. Romo said he told her that he needed a $200,000 loan to buy property in Big Bear and to build a home gym. Romo said she was broke and had no money, and Vargas told her he had no money, either.
She said she later found out that he had received $250,000 from the purse of his first boxing title fight.
Romo said the house was purchased for $110,000. She said it is now worth $550,000.
“He has a Rolex watch, and a chain and a ring that cost more than that,” she said, adding that her son wants to turn the property into a boarding house.
Romo said she insisted and Vargas always promised that he would put the title back in her name. She said Vargas didn’t speak to her for seven years as a result of the home-title dispute.
According to Romo, her mother saw the punch coming.
“My mom told me, ‘I’m not signing my half because one of these days, he is going to throw us out.’ I never thought he was going to throw me out of my house,” she said.
Until last year, Romo said, she managed apartments in Bakersfield that are owned by Vargas. She said he paid her $400 a month and let her live in an apartment with the utilities paid. Vargas bought her a new pickup truck so she could use it for work at the apartments and he paid for the gasoline, Romo said.
Three months ago, Romo claims, Vargas took the truck back.
The bitter feud with her son has taken a mental toll on her, she said. In a declaration to the court for the eviction hearing, she wrote that she tried to commit suicide in 2006.
“When Fernando was informed of this he came to see me in the hospital where I was in the intensive care unit. There he promised me again that he would immediately re-deed the property to my home to me, and said that he would also buy me another home,” she stated. “My response was that I only wanted my house back.”