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Escobar, Inc. is a company registered in
Guaynabo Guaynabo (, ) is a city, suburb of San Juan and municipality in the northern part of Puerto Rico, located in the northern coast of the island, north of Aguas Buenas, south of Cataño, east of Bayamón, and west of San Juan. Guaynabo is sprea ...
,
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
, tied to various scams involving selling smartphones and flamethrowers with Escobar Inc branding without delivering the products to customers. It was established on April 20, 2015. The company is known for its association with
Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria (born January 13, 1947), nicknamed ''El Osito'' ("the little teddy bear"), is the brother of deceased drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar, and the former accountant and co-founder of the Medellín Cartel, which was re ...
, the brother of
Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal in h ...
, and various scams.


History

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


Conflict with Netflix

On July 1, 2016, Escobar Inc sent a letter to
Netflix, Inc. Netflix, Inc. is an American media conglomerate, media company founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California and currently based in Los Gatos, California. It owns and operates Netflix, an eponymous over-the-top ...
regarding the series ''
Narcos ''Narcos'' is an American-Colombian crime drama television series created and produced by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro. Set and filmed in Colombia, seasons 1 and 2 are based on the story of Colombian narcoterrorist and drug ...
'' demanding $1 billion in payment for unauthorized usage of content. On September 11, 2017, Carlos Muñoz Portal, a
location scout Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work ...
from Netflix, was found assassinated in his car in
Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
. Roberto Escobar denied any involvement and offered to provide
hitmen Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may b ...
as security for Netflix. On November 6, 2017, Escobar Inc abandoned the dispute.


Donald Trump

On January 8, 2019, Pablo Escobar's brother Robert Escobar, launched a $50 million
GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...
fundraiser Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
on behalf of Escobar Inc in an effort to
impeach Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...
President Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
. The page was promptly removed from the platform.


Elon Musk and The Boring Company

In July 2019, Escobar Inc started selling a
propane torch A propane torch is a tool normally used for the application of flame or heat which uses propane, a hydrocarbon gas, for its fuel and ambient air as its combustion medium. Propane is one of a group of by-products of the natural gas and petroleum ...
made to look like a
flamethrower A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World Wa ...
and accused
The Boring Company The Boring Company (TBC) is an American infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk. Its ongoing and proposed projects are designed for intra-city ("loop") transit systems. After six years TBC has completed on ...
CEO
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
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. Via media, Escobar Inc publicly offered Musk a settlement of $100 million in cash or
Tesla Tesla most commonly refers to: * Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), a Serbian-American electrical engineer and inventor * Tesla, Inc., an American electric vehicle and clean energy company, formerly Tesla Motors, Inc. * Tesla (unit) (symbol: T), the SI-d ...
shares; otherwise they would use the legal system to take over Tesla. 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.


PabloEscobar.com

On August 28, 2019, Escobar Inc filed a
UDRP The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a process established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names. The UDRP curren ...
complaint regarding
cybersquatting Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The term is derived ...
of the domain PabloEscobar.com with the then-
National Arbitration Forum Forum, formerly known as the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) is an American organization that provides arbitration and mediation services to businesses, based at its Minneapolis headquarters and offices in New Jersey. The organization was found ...
. The prior owner demanded $3 million for the domain name 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.


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. 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. 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 The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
.


Smartphones

On December 2, 2019, Escobar Inc released what it called the Escobar Fold 1 smartphone featuring a flexible screen, which ended up being a rebadged Royole FlexPai. Two months later, on February 10, 2020, the Escobar Fold 2 was released, which is a Galaxy Fold with poorly added Escobar branding. Many customers, when ordering the phones, said that they never received them, with only tech
influencers An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...
actually receiving products. 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. In May 2020, the company released a refurbished version of the
iPhone 11 Pro The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are smartphones designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Serving as the Apple's flagship models of the 13th-generation of iPhones, they succeeded the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, respectively, ...
and allegedly sued Apple for $2.6 billion.


References

{{reflist Pablo Escobar