Wicked-rich owner of dead ponies has local ties
Tags: dead horses, florida, Francisco Franco, International Polo Club Palm Beach, Victor Vargas, Wellington
| Monday 20 April 2009 10:48 am
Even at $100,000 per, what’s 21 polo horses to La Lechuza Caracas owner Victor Vargas?
Chances are, he can buy 21 others in no time.
Victor Vargas (photo courtesy of New York Social Diary)
Vargas, 57, the captain and patron of the team whose ponies died in mysterious circumstances before a match at the International Polo Club Palm Beach Sunday in Wellington, is one of South America’s richest men.
And someone with strong Palm Beach County ties.
Just last June, through a company called White Sea Holdings, Venezuelan bank owner Vargas plunked down $68.5 million for one of Palm Beach’s classic homes, the Polynesian-style manse of cellphone billionaire and fellow horse lover George Lindemann. Then he took a $20 million mortgage on it, from Merrill Lynch.
News story: horses killed
And how’s this for a coincidence? Lindemann’s son, George Lindemann Jr., served 33 months behind bars in the 1990s after being convicted of paying off someone to electrocute his champion jumper Charisma in a $250,000 insurance insurance scam.
Emma Cisneros, the CEO of Vargas’ Wellington-based White Sea Holdings, didn’t return calls asking about Vargas, who also owns a ranch in Wellington worth about $5 million.
The man has literally vanished since some of his horses laid down and died on the turf. One source at the United States Polo Association told me Vargas hopped on one of his three private jets Sunday afternoon and flew overseas.
Vargas, who also has oil interests, owns homes in the Dominican Republic and his native Venezuela, where he is considered close to President Hugo Chavez. (Ironically, Vargas’ daughter married a great grandson of the Spanish facist Francisco Franco.)
In a Wall Street Journal story last year, Vargas bragged: “People write stories about me saying I have a Ferrari, a plane, a yacht,” he said. “But it’s not true. I’ve got three planes, two yachts, six houses. I’ve been rich all my life!”
His Palm Beach home, by the way, historically has been known as Casa del Corazon, or House of the Heart.
And their hearts is also what eventually failed Vargas’ 21 horses.
The USPA is expecting to get the horses’ toxicology reports Wednesday or Thursday.
“We’re not going to comment until then,” said USPA lawyer Craig Galle.
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Polo horses are dying behind blue tarp Sunday afternoon
Sadly, doping is all too common in multiple facets of the equestrian industry and is looked upon by most members of the industry as simply a part of the business. Banning Vargas from any equestrian sports is a good start and will set a precedent, but it will most likely serve little purpose; he’ll simply pay someone else to handle his equestrian investments for him, keeping his name under the radar. Should a doping scandal be the trigger for these untimely deaths, then Vargas, along with any associates involved, should be jailed and his/their green cards removed. Unfortunately the U.S. laws on animal cruelty simply aren’t harsh enough to atone for this offense. Polo is played world-wide; finding matches and facilities outside the U.S. will be a simple thing for Vargas to do. Until the U.S. starts taking animal cruelty seriously, I’m a firm believer in “an eye for an eye” — I wonder how much insurance money Vargas’s wife might get if he suddenly fell down on the polo field, breathing heavily and died shortly thereafter of a heart attack?
It is too bad that one is condemned before all the evidence has been aquired. Throughout your comment you drop hints and insinuations that Victor Vargas is guilty of “murdering” his horses. You allude to Lindeman’s son’s insurance scam with his show horse as probable cause for Vargas to do the same. Polo ponies are valuable, well trained and usually well cherished by those who own them. What is the motive here, to “kill” outright and make “suffer” 24 beautiful horses??? There certainly was NO monetary gain since the horses were uninsured?
I guess innuendo, insinuation and implide truth SELLS the news.
Venezuelan SCUM , just like his cronie Chavez—- and they are “supposed” to be a “socialist and “communist-friendly” nation—-with Chavez so “tight” with the Castros…??? Yet this idiot has THREE private jets and is filthy rich. Sadly most Venezuelans can barely afford food & minimal housing.
Maybe it was a CIA Black-Ops operation, right? That’s probably what Chavez and Vargas will claim, even if it IS confirmed they doped the poor horses to death themselves……..
It’s always the United States’ “fault” no matter what happens , right ?
Now here’s a guy we really SHOULD remove from power:Chavez, -like we did with Saddam, and hang him in public in a square in Caracas!
I was in a south tailgate spot at Palm Beach International Polo Club Sunday afternoon, spending hours with eyes not turned to the field of play, but looking across a little pond at a patch of ground where vets, techs, grooms, and volunteers struggled to save the dying ponies.
I watched my vet tech friend, who had come to watch the match, kick off her shoes, and race in bare feet around the pond to assist with drawing blood and administering fluids.
A blue tarp, hastily placed between a down horse and possible spectators, soon became 8 such barriers in a short time. I saw the grooms and their families in agony, crying, waiting, and stood with a group of them for almost 4 hours, waiting, for maybe just one to stand again. There were dead horses in the trailers, and we saw others skidded up the ramps to join them.
I watched a groom on the opposing team, with her arms around the neck of one of one of her mares, crying unashamedly.
We heard Tony Coppola announce that the day’s match would be postponed for various lengths of time, that vets were caring for animals having “allergic reactions.” The quickly tossed together “exhibition game,” with half-time champagne and “divot stomping” actually appeared fairly typical of a normal match.
I saw fashionably dressed attendees drift out out of the celebrity tent, carrying tall flutes of champagne and tumblers of exotic looking liquids; they’d wander to the pond bank, look for a minute or two at the frenetic activity, then mosey back to resume the day’s festivities. They seemed so removed from those of us who kept vigil, and finally left, with tears in our eyes.
Many love the game, and some of us admire the athleticism of the animals as much or more than the performance of celebrity players. All of us truly hope that there was no foul play, or any action, by any human being, that will taint the sport of polo. But if there was, frankly, I hope that heads will roll.
As Rye noticed-
seems many of the wealthy “celebrities” couldn’t really give a shit about the “horses” —-they’re only horses, after all; they were much more concerned that their afternoon of drinking champagne and schmoozing might be impeded by the unmitigated “rudeness” of the dumb animals falling sick and DYING …………..
How typical of all that’s been taking place in America with the Bernie Madoff SCAM RIPOFF and all the Corporations and Govt. Agencies ripping off the average American.
Kind of like how Nancy Pelosi castigated the Corporate CEO’s asked to come to DC for the hearings flying there in their private jets to beg for federal handouts—-
and then SHE and her hubby fly over to ITALY on a USAF JET at a cost of $6,000 per HOUR to the tune of over a half a million dollars ……………
A MAN THAT HAS BEEN RICH AND PLAYED POLO INTERNATIONALLY FOR MANY YEARS TIPICALLY
LOVES HIS ANIMALS.
ANYONE IN THE SPORT CAN TELL YOU THAT.
GET AN EDUCATION, BE SUCCESFULL AND
THEN EMIT AN OPINION.
The people that have posted hostile feelings do not know the game or the horsemen and women involved. Lechuza has worked for years to have a string of horses so incredible. No amount of money can quickly replace these horses. They were the best of the best. There is no insurance scam. Very few polo horses are ever insured. This was a tragic day. Lechuza wanted to win the US Open and would never have intentionally hurt their horses. As for the fashionable people drinking champagne, they are not polo people, they are spectators that come to Sunday games to see and be seen. The real polo world go to the back field games that happen with no tents, no champagne, no fancy clothes and no annoying fashionista’s to get in the way of watching the game. S
Victor Vargas is a good man that takes excellent care of his horses and employees. Do not speak so hatefully about something or someone you know nothing about.
[...] Caracas polo pony death toll hits 21 after horses fall ill in Wellington [Palm Beach Daily News] Wicked-rich owner of dead ponies has local ties [Page 2 [...]
Victor Vargas is a nouveau riche flea. Nobody with ny class or money behaves the way he does. Whether it is boasting about his yachts, planes, and houses or being so obsessed with the trappings of wealth (Polo included). Those from Venezuela know his wealth comes from one thing only: massive money laundering both of corruption monies and the drug money that needs to be cleaned in Venezuela.
Who else tells the Wall Street Journal “I have been rich all my life” except a man who was born poor and feels profoundly insecure? Victor Vargas is a fraud and he behaves like one.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all that given his penchant for cheating (the system, the law, justice) that he doped up his horses and his doctor chose the wrong “vitamins” and ended up killing them.
What will happen if it is revealed he is a Polo cheat?
To Mr Lambiet and all of you who partcipate in his blog:
The Cosntitution states that everybody is innocent until proven guilty. Mr Lambiet are you so omnipotent that you can declare Mr Vargas guilty just like that? And to all people that commented insinuating Mr Vargas to be linked to money laundering, etc.; those are serious accusations. Just because Mr Vargas has means, it does not make him a crook. Perhaps most of you who commented these horrible things about Mr. Vargas are just envious and fill your boring lives with gossip of this sort. And by the way Mr Lambiet, read the statament that you post on your site regarding the contents of the comments, and I quote: “…we want to avoid comments thar are obscene, hateful, racist or otherwise innapropriate…” don’t you think that some of the comments left by some of your readers fall under those categories?
Hola tiempo sin saber de mi amigo querido Victor Vargas, realmente quiero manifestarle mi pesar por el triste acontecimiento de los 21 caballos.
isolina_albano@hotmail.com
Caracas Venezuela
You say that you want to avoid hateful, racist or otherwise inappropriate comments but your whole article and vote box, which by the way you forgot to include something positive to vote on, is just that to a true horse community, especially to the polo community. Our community here in Wellington of all disciplines of riding is shocked with this article and the hateful comments written and the only 3 choices given by your writer are to condemn a man of harming his beloved animals. And guess what people, to have a string of horses here or a farm, you have to have money, and lots of it, so those of you that have posted those comments about money, well, I guess your talking about everyone with a farm in Wellington. Or a polo team, it takes a lot of money. So, lucky horses that there are people out there that have money to spend on them, so, frankly we are shocked by your writers attitude. I would have waited for the test results and sheriffs reports and the investigation before writing something like that. Did you even realize that only 1 thoroughbred out of about 800 to 1000 is good enough to be a polo horse of that ranking. To lose 21 at once is a tragedy and irreplaceable. Maybe your writer should look into it a bit better before hand. Talk to some Argentina polo players or Tony Coppola of Tackaria maybe and get some real facts first. And no I am not a polo fan, nor is it my discipline, nor do I have any horses since about 2 years now and actually Arabians are my breed of choice. But I have lived in this community 18 years and know the people and have polo neighbors and used to go to matches and know enough about the sport. So lets wait till the facts come in from the professional investigators before writing such hateful things people.
I am totally agree with Mr. PobreDiablo !!
Comment by POBREDIABLO — April 20, 2009 @ 7:09 pm
To Mr Lambiet and all of you who partcipate in his blog:
The Cosntitution states that everybody is innocent until proven guilty. Mr Lambiet are you so omnipotent that you can declare Mr Vargas guilty just like that? And to all people that commented insinuating Mr Vargas to be linked to money laundering, etc.; those are serious accusations. Just because Mr Vargas has means, it does not make him a crook. Perhaps most of you who commented these horrible things about Mr. Vargas are just envious and fill your boring lives with gossip of this sort. And by the way Mr Lambiet, read the statament that you post on your site regarding the contents of the comments, and I quote: “…we want to avoid comments thar are obscene, hateful, racist or otherwise innapropriate…” don’t you think that some of the comments left by some of your readers fall under those categories?
Has anyone given thought to the old Godfather movie where the head of the owner’s favorite horse ends up in his bed? Not talking about Mafia. Talking about bank deals, shooting off his mouth, the divorce, who knows what. It’s disgusting that innocents (animals and people) have to pay the ultimate price, like what Wall Street is doing these days to ordinary folks.
IT IS AMAZING TO ME THE DIRECTION PEOPLE GO SO QUICKLY - THE MORE SENSATIONAL THE STORY THE MORE PAPERS IT SELLS I GUESS - SPEND SOMETIME RESEARCHING IONOPHORE OR MONENSIN POISONING - IT WILL BE A RESULT OF A SOMETHING GETTING INTO THE FEED OR SUPPLEMENTS - IN MILLING OR PACKAGING - I WORKED FOR A FARM WHO LOST A NUMBER OF HORSES TO MONENSIN POISONING - WHILE THE REAL STORY WON’T SELL AS MANY PAPERS - IT WILL BE NO LESS SAD OR TRAGIC FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED—
A serious tragedy. horses dont die that fast from toxic weeds, tainted hay……this is a seriously toxic substance tat must have been administered around the same time for all these horses to die so suddenly. Whatever, the horses got either by accident or otheriwse was ingested or injected. Only time will tell and only id the toxicology includes rare or barnyarf toxic substances. crotolaria has to be injested in a significant amount to cause this type of damage. These horses were apparently fine until just before showtime. A sick accident at best, has rattled the horse community. I seriously doubt that the owner had anything to do with this event. This column is a disgrace with its accusations against the owner. No matter what type of ego is involved, these owners dont need to harm their horses. look elsewhere, examine when they were fed, where the food came from, were supplements given, who had access to these horses,; whatever happened, happened that day!
A very small amount of monensin can kill a horse in a matter of hours - google it — the circumstances of the deaths of these horses is text book –
I would tend to agree that it seems doubtful that the owner of the horses: VARGAS, killed his own horses—-
but it seems highly likely that there is a distinct possibility that he messed with the wrong person or persons or the wrong GOVERNMENT and the horses were taken out to send him a message .
NO WONDER Vargas VANISHED IMMEDITELY and boarded one of his THREE PRIVATE JETS and flew out of the country! THAT was probably a very wise decision on his part. Although the point might have been that he could be taken out anytime also, just as the 21 horses were.
So the reference to the horses head in the movie producer’s bed in The Godfather might have been a very astute analogy.
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[...] Venezuelan team, owned by President Hugo Chavez crony Victor Vargas, also travels with its full-time veterinarian, an Argentine named Felix [...]
I was lucky to work with Mr Vargas for over 6 years and “I know as a fact that there is nothing more important for him (aside his family) than his polo ponies” .
Siento mucho su perdida.
Holli, thanks for your objectivity. I shall look up Monensin.
if it’s a case of drugs, it could be accidental:
Monensin toxicity (http://www.provet.co.uk/equinecardiology/5a66aa4.htm)
This drug is used as a growth promoter in cattle feed and as a coccidiostat in poultry feed, but it is highly toxic to horses. A number of outbreaks of monensin poisoning associated with the accidental feeding of cattle feed to horses or contamination of horse feed at a feed mill have been reported in recent years. Monensin causes acute cellular necrosis, leading to fibrosis. In addition, hepatic, renal and skeletal muscle necrosis may result. When monensin toxicity is suspected analysis of the feed is required.
Clinical signs Clinical signs of monensin toxicity can vary from sudden death due to per-acute hypovolaemic shock, to mild inappetance. Anorexia, ataxia, sweating, increased urination, jugular pulses, tachycardia and dysrhythmias have been documented. CHF is a common feature. In some horses, the clinical signs may be delayed for weeks before the myocardial damage leads to the developof dysrhythmias. In animals which have been exposed to low doses, exercise intolerance may be the only abnormality observed.
Why was the team veterinarian so quick to leave the country if these were his teams horses and he oversaw them to be here at a US Open event and they died wouldn’t one think he would want to stay and be part of the team trying to save them and do the necropsies to find out the real reason. Something smells fishy here.
Folks, please understand: EVERYONE in the polo community loves the horses as much or more than any other part of the game. More than fancy clothes or champagne; those people are not polo people. They are spectators, celeb watchers, groupies, whatever you want to call them. Those of us in the REAL polo family (and it IS a family) are wholly committed to maintaining the outdoorsy, wholesome, natural way of horses and barns, sport and camaraderie. No one hurt these horses on purpose. Their owners….they do not all belong to Victor Vargas but, rather, to the talented and conscientious young players who, in some cases, bred and raised them from foals….revere them. We are heartbroken over the loss of these incredible animals. Please, do not spout off about something you do not know. Wait for the toxicology reports and the investigation by authorities. This kind of rabid, ignorant speculation only causes undue additional pain to a very small, very close-knit community of people…and horses….and we are grieving deeply already. Thank you.
It seems that the author of this blog clearly does not understand the horse world. It is comprised of wealthy people, and not so wealthy people, all who share one love and passion in their life - horses! To the majority of the horse people they revolve their life around these beautiful animals. Please show a little consideration and compassion for the owner fo the team Victor Vargas and for the players whose life, passion and livelyhoods revolved around the horses who have been taken from them! This is a complete tragedy for any horse owner or equestrian enthusiast to have to endure.
Hey —- pay the Piper!
If you want to be the biggest Money Launderer and Bankroller for drugs and supporting Chavez’z communist regime——don’t come whining to us when your $100,000 polo ponies are taken out to send you a little “message”,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
What an ARROGANT little WHINER! Go back to Venezueala and live with your karma!
as a former high goal polo groom myself, I can say from experience that for any horse atheletes to reach this level of play, it is crucial that every second of care during these horses day is mapped out precisely. this includes the exact amount of exercise, the exact amount of feed and vitamins and electrolytes for the level of competition expected that day. Caretakers carefully inspect the hay and grain for the deadly molds and insects that are known to have wiped out entire barns of livestock, throughout history. There are even more rare, yet possible toxins that may crop up in feed alone, due to extreme weather conditions where the feed was harvested which can go virtually undetected.
A polo player’s life and livliehood depends on the ability of his horse athelete( and partner) to be able to make quick and practiced decisions on his feet. The best playing pony in each match is acknowledged as the players know they are nothing without the horse; thus he is acknowledged as the most inportant participant. The feeds will have to be examined and tested, traced to where they were produced according to what might crop up after possible drought, fire, flood, whatever the case may have been. If preliminary tests do not find a more common agent. It is so unlikely that any other “scheme” be afoot considering the incredible care and respect these top equine atheletes receive, that is is an utter waste of time and resource to have to investigate such silly propositions as I am reading here today. It is tragic when one’s symbiotic partner is lost and i pray for the broken hearts of the players and caretakers alike of these magnificent and heroic creatures whose love in life was to run like the wind, in beautiful synchronization with his human partner, his team and stablemates and who brought such incredible grace to a mere field of grass ….
Ok. Today is 4/23 and the Ocala Pharmaceutical company has admitted the wrong formulation of the compound. So now that the truth is starting to float, what do all the people, specially Mr/Ms TRISTAN (comments #18 & 27) who have made insulting and degrading comments about Mr Vargas, have to say? At least a public apology, don’t you think?
It is a sad and devestating event. It appears that a typically adminstered European supplement was compounded incorrectly by Franck’s Pharmacy here in the US. Typically the incredients are B-12, selenium, potassium and magnesium. The pharmacy has admitted an error with the dosing of the ingredients, however specifics have not yet been released. But selenium is suspected to have dosed incorrectly. As hard as it was to admit, it was the right thing for the pahramacy to admit the error. But that being said, such an error should never occur.
Well, Well, Well
Is it about 21 horses that died or about Victor Vargas?
If there was a problem with the preparation of the vitamins by the lab, the law will prevail…
If the preparation was ordered by Victor Vargas or some one from the team, the law will prevail….
If the horses died for any !rare reason!!, the law will prevail…
But to mix both horses and Victor Vargas is not fair.
As for the so many that in Venezuela are starving and he is wealthy, plase read a little more about south america. By the way, 9% of Americans control 95% of the economy. Please do mix apples and oranges.
May be you will like to have so much money and do not know how to do it. After all, USA is the land of opportunities, go to work, invent something and make some money…. Then become a critic….
M.G.
Jose Lambiet you are stupid !!!
My sadness at the passing of the horse and pony
Greetings
Isolina Albano
Caracas Venezuela