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Escobar Inc

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Escobar, Inc.
Company typePrivate
FoundedMay 1, 1984 (unofficially)
April 20, 2015 (2015-04-20) (registered)[1]
Founders
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Olof Gustafsson (CEO)
Websiteescobarinc.com

Escobar, Inc. is a company registered in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico,[2] tied to various scams involving selling smartphones and flamethrowers with Escobar Inc branding without delivering the products to customers.[3][4] It was established on April 20, 2015.[5] The company is known for its association with Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria, the brother of Pablo Escobar,[6] and various scams.[7][8]

History

The company was formed into a legal corporation on April 20, 2015 in Puerto Rico.[1]

Conflict with Netflix

On July 1, 2016, Escobar Inc sent a letter to Netflix, Inc. regarding the series Narcos demanding $1 billion in payment for unauthorized usage of content.[9] On September 11, 2017, Carlos Muñoz Portal, a location scout from Netflix, was found assassinated in his car in Mexico.[10] Roberto Escobar denied any involvement and offered to provide hitmen as security for Netflix.[11] On November 6, 2017, Escobar Inc abandoned the dispute.[12]

Donald Trump

On January 8, 2019, Pablo Escobar's brother Robert Escobar, launched a $50 million GoFundMe fundraiser on behalf of Escobar Inc in an effort to impeach President Trump. The page was promptly removed from the platform.[13]

Elon Musk and The Boring Company

In July 2019, Escobar Inc started selling a propane torch made to look like a flamethrower and accused The Boring Company CEO Elon Musk of intellectual property theft, alleging that The Boring Company's promotional Not-a-Flamethrower is based on a design that Roberto Escobar discussed in 2017 with an engineer associated with Musk.[14] Via media, Escobar Inc publicly offered Musk a settlement of $100 million[15] in cash or Tesla shares; otherwise they would use the legal system to take over Tesla.[16] No action has been taken since. Customers who paid for the Escobar Inc flamethrower reportedly received a printed certificate of ownership instead of the ordered product. Buyers had disputes filed with PayPal denied after Escobar Inc provided the tracking information used to send the certificate as proof of delivery. PayPal later closed its accounts with Escobar Inc. [17]

PabloEscobar.com

On August 28, 2019, Escobar Inc filed a UDRP complaint regarding cybersquatting of the domain PabloEscobar.com with the then-National Arbitration Forum.[18] The prior owner demanded $3 million for the domain name[19] and on October 7, 2019, the case was ruled in the favor of the company with the domain name ordered to be transferred to the company.[20]

Arrest of CEO

On December 4, 2023 Olof K Gustafsson, the CEO of Escobar Inc, was arrested in Marbella, Spain, on charges including money laundering, fraud, and art smuggling.[21] The American authorities are seeking his extradition to the United States, as confirmed by his lawyer. Gustafsson is alleged to have been involved in a criminal organization engaged in the illegal trade of artwork.[22]

Gustafsson and Escobar Inc also face accusations of defrauding 500-600 customers by not delivering mobile phones they had paid for, which the company attributes to delivery issues during the pandemic. The firm has been embroiled in legal conflicts with payment service providers Klarna and Stripe, leading to the closure of its accounts. The money laundering allegations involve the transfer of $1.2 million between accounts in the USA and the UAE.[22]

Pablo Escobar trademark

In September 2021, Escobar Inc applied for an European Union trademark for the name "Pablo Escobar". The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) rejected the application on the grounds that it "was contrary to public policy and to accepted principles of morality". The company challenged the EUIPO decision but, on 17 April 2024, the General Court of the EU upheld the decision to reject the trademark citing that the name "Pablo Escobar" is associated with "drug trafficking and narco-terrorism and with the crimes and suffering resulting therefrom" and thus the trademark would be against "fundamental values and moral standards".[23][24]

Smartphones

On December 2, 2019, Escobar Inc released what it called the Escobar Fold 1 smartphone featuring a flexible screen,[25] which ended up being a rebadged Royole FlexPai.[26] Two months later, on February 10, 2020, the Escobar Fold 2 was released, which is a Galaxy Fold with poorly added Escobar branding.[27][28] Many customers, when ordering the phones, said that they never received them, with only tech influencers actually receiving products.[29][7] It has also been alleged that Escobar Inc sent bogus product orders consisting of a book, allowing Escobar Inc to claim the phone had been shipped out.[29] In May 2020, the company released a refurbished version of the iPhone 11 Pro and allegedly sued Apple for $2.6 billion.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "Puerto Rico Online". April 20, 2015. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  2. ^ "ESCOBAR INC. :: Puerto Rico :: OpenCorporates". opencorporates.com. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  3. ^ "Pablo Escobar's brother is trying to sell refurbished iPhone 11 Pros for $499". Engadget. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  4. ^ "Please Stop Buying the Foldable Phone From Pablo Escobar's Brother". PCMAG. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  5. ^ "ESCOBAR INC. :: Puerto Rico :: OpenCorporates". opencorporates.com. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  6. ^ Anderson, Jon Lee (February 26, 2018). "The Afterlife of Pablo Escobar". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c "Pablo Escobar's brother is trying to sell refurbished iPhone 11 Pros for $499". Engadget. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  8. ^ "Pablo Escobar's Brother May Be Scamming Users With Foldable Phones". PCMAG. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  9. ^ Ingram, Matthew (July 7, 2016). "Real-Life Drug Kingpin Wants Netflix to Pay Him $1 Billion for 'Narcos'". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  10. ^ Lotito, Thomas (September 17, 2017). "'Narcos' Location Scout Found Dead in Mexico". New York Times. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  11. ^ Scott, Katie (September 19, 2017). "Pablo Escobar's brother says 'Narcos' should 'provide hit men' for crew after location scout killed". Global News. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  12. ^ Nattrass, JJ (January 15, 2018). "Pablo Escobar's brother abandons his battle with Netflix over Narcos". Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  13. ^ Scott, Katie (January 8, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's brother launched $50M GoFundMe to impeach Donald Trump". Global News. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  14. ^ Villasanta, Arthur (July 17, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's Brother Wants $100M Tesla Shares, Claims Musk Stole Flamethrower Design". International Business Times. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  15. ^ Price, Emily (July 11, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's brother pours fuel on the flamethrower feud with Elon Musk". Digital Trends. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  16. ^ Greene, Tristan (July 11, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's brother escalates flamethrower feud with Elon Musk, threatens Tesla takeover". The Next Web. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  17. ^ "Please Stop Buying the Foldable Phone From Pablo Escobar's Brother". PCMAG. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  18. ^ Mihov, Dimitar (October 10, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's brother wins $3M website lawsuit, vows to take down Elon Musk and Apple". The Next Web. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  19. ^ Khanna, Monit (October 11, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's Brother Threatens Apple, Accuses Elon Musk Of Stealing Flamethrower Idea". India Times. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  20. ^ "PabloEscobar.com, la revancha digital del capo colombiano". Forbes. October 10, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  21. ^ https://www.krimfup.se/articles/olof-k-gustafsson-haktad-i-spanien-misstanks-for-flera-brott
  22. ^ a b Eklund, Henning (December 20, 2023). "Svenska vd:n misstänks för konstsmuggling". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). ISSN 1101-2412. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
  23. ^ Espinoza, Javier (April 17, 2024). "'Pablo Escobar' cannot be registered as a trademark, EU court rules". Financial Times.
  24. ^ Ahmatović, Šejla (April 17, 2024). "'Pablo Escobar' can't be registered as EU trademark, court rules". Politico Europe. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
  25. ^ "Pablo Escobar's Brother Unveils Folding Smartphone with Help of Hot Models". TMZ. December 2, 2019. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  26. ^ Hughes, Matthew. "Escobar Fold 1 snort all it's cracked up to be: Readers finger similarity to slated Chinese mobe". The Register. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  27. ^ Smith, Chris (March 12, 2020). "The $399 Escobar Fold is actually a Samsung Galaxy Fold with a sticker". BGR. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  28. ^ Brownlee, Marques (March 10, 2020). "The Truth About the Escobar Folding Phones!". YouTube. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  29. ^ a b Kan, Michael (April 17, 2020). "Please Stop Buying the Foldable Phone From Pablo Escobar's Brother". PCMag UK. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
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