Escobar Inc

Escobar Inc is a Colombian multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Medellín, Colombia. This corporation has been tied to various alleged scams involving selling refurbished smartphones with Escobar Inc branding such as stickers on the products which do not resemble advertising, or subsequently sending product orders consisting of a book, allowing Escobar Inc to claim the phone had been delivered.[1][2] It was established on May 1, 1984[3][4] by Pablo Escobar, a day after the assassination of the Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla[5][6] as a means of funneling large sums of cash outside of Colombia with the help of his brother, Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria. The company is known for its association with Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria, the brother of Pablo Escobar,[7] and various scams involving selling phones.[8][9]

Escobar Inc
TypePrivate
IndustryConglomerate
FoundedMay 1, 1984 (1984-05-01) in Medellín, Colombia
Founders
Headquarters
Medellín
,
Colombia
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
ProductsDiversified investments, restaurants, apparel, toys, media, consumer products, internet, real estate
Websiteescobarinc.com

History

Originally established on May 1, 1984[3][4] by Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, the day after Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla's assassination,[5][6] the company was used as a means of funneling large sums of cash outside of Colombia with the help of his brother Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria. It aided the money laundering of over $420 million in profits made by Pablo Escobar per week.[10] The company and its activities were stopped when Roberto Escobar surrendered to authorities on October 8, 1992.[11]

2015 reincorporation

The company was formed into a legal corporation on April 20, 2015 in Puerto Rico[12]

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.[13] On September 11, 2017, Carlos Muñoz Portal, a location scout from Netflix, was found assassinated in his car in Mexico.[14] Roberto Escobar denied any involvement and offered to provide hitmen as security for Netflix.[15] Escobar Inc, on November 6, 2017, abandoned the dispute.[16]

Donald Trump

On April 11, 2016, prior to the 2016 United States presidential election, it was reported by The Washington Post, with the help of Zignal Labs, that Escobar Inc CEO Olof K. Gustafsson had helped Republican candidate Donald Trump obtain social media followers[17] resulting in Trump's social media presence spiking. On January 8, 2019, Gustafsson launched a $50 million GoFundMe fundraiser under his name on behalf of Escobar Inc in an effort to impeach President Trump.[18] After raising $10 million in 10 hours, the page was removed.[19]

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.[20] Via media, Escobar Inc publicly offered Musk a settlement of $100 million[21] in cash or Tesla shares; otherwise they would use the legal system to take over Tesla.[22] No action has been taken since.

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.[23] The prior owner demanded $3 million for the domain name[24] 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.[25]

Smartphones

On December 2, 2019, Escobar Inc released what it called the Escobar Fold 1 smartphone featuring a flexible screen,[26] which ended up being a rebadged Royole Flexpai.[27] Two months later, on February 10, 2020, the Escobar Fold 2 was released, which is reportedly a Galaxy Fold with poorly-added Escobar branding.[28][29] Many customers, when ordering the phones, said that they never received them, with only tech influencers actually receiving products.[30][31] 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 delivered.[30] In May 2020, the company released a refurbished version of the iPhone 11 Pro and allegedly sued Apple for $2.6 billion.[31]

References
  1. "Pablo Escobar's brother is trying to sell refurbished iPhone 11 Pros for $499". Engadget. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  2. "Pablo Escobar's Brother May Be Scamming Users With Foldable Phones". PCMAG. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  3. "Escobar Inc - History". Escobar Inc. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  4. Giangrande, Antonio (December 22, 2018). La Mafia in Italia - Volume 200 of L'Italia del Trucco, l'Italia che siamo (in Italian). Italy. p. 585. ISBN 9781792154652.
  5. "El Asesinato de Rodrigo Lara Bonilla" [The Assassination of Rodrigo Lara Bonilla]. Semana (in Spanish). August 7, 1987. ISSN 0124-5473. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2010.
  6. Associated Press (May 1, 1984). "Justice Minister slain in Bogota". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  7. Anderson, Jon Lee (February 26, 2018). "The Afterlife of Pablo Escobar". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  8. "Pablo Escobar's brother is trying to sell refurbished iPhone 11 Pros for $499". Engadget. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  9. "Pablo Escobar's Brother May Be Scamming Users With Foldable Phones". PCMAG. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  10. Macias, Amanda (December 29, 2017). "10 facts reveal the absurdity of Pablo Escobar's wealth". Independent. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  11. Fulleda, Federico (October 8, 1992). "Colombian drug cartel leaders surrender". UPI. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  12. "Puerto Rico Online". April 20, 2015. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  13. Ingram, Matthew (July 7, 2016). "Real-Life Drug Kingpin Wants Netflix to Pay Him $1 Billion for 'Narcos'". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  14. Lotito, Thomas (September 17, 2017). "'Narcos' Location Scout Found Dead in Mexico". New York Times. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  15. 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.
  16. Nattrass, JJ (January 15, 2018). "Pablo Escobar's brother abandons his battle with Netflix over Narcos". Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  17. James Hohmann (April 11, 2016). "The Daily 202: Is Trump a choke artist? Continuing unforced errors bode poorly for his hopes in a contested Republican convention". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  18. Scott, Katie (January 8, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's brother launched $50M GoFundMe to impeach Donald Trump". Global News. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  19. Martinez, Jose (January 11, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's Brother Reportedly Raised $10 Million for His Impeach Trump GoFundMe Page". Complex. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  20. 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.
  21. Price, Emily (July 11, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's brother pours fuel on the flamethrower feud with Elon Musk". Digital Trends. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Khanna, Monit (October 11, 2019). "Pablo Escobar's Brother Threatens Apple, Accuses Elon Musk Of Stealing Flamethrower Idea". India Times. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  25. "PabloEscobar.com, la revancha digital del capo colombiano". Forbes. October 10, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  26. "Pablo Escobar's Brother Unveils Folding Smartphone with Help of Hot Models". TMZ. December 2, 2019. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  27. 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.
  28. Smith, Chris (March 12, 2020). "The $399 Escobar Fold is actually a Samsung Galaxy Fold with a sticker". BGR. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  29. Brownlee, Marques (March 10, 2020). "The Truth About the Escobar Folding Phones!". YouTube. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  30. Kan, Michael (April 17, 2020). "Please Stop Buying the Foldable Phone From Pablo Escobar's Brother". PCMag UK. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  31. "Pablo Escobar's brother is trying to sell refurbished iPhone 11 Pros for $499". Engadget. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
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