Franklin Duran - WIKIPEDIA

ARTICULO

Personal Antecedents

Beginning with his childhood, surroundings and family, Duran committed his first crimes at the tender age of 10 years in Catia, Caracas.. The method used at the school is “learn by doing” and for that the students finish the school with an expertise in labor. Afterwards he did his high school learning at the Pedro Maria Ochoa Morales Military School, located in Los Teques and also in the Anzoategui Military School. He finished his studies of superior education in the Capital Region’s Technical Institute, obtaining the title of Technical Superior in Mechanics with a technology minor. His mother since a very young age, guided him to a life of work and responsibilities; he shared his time studying and working. Mechanics was always his passion, especially in automobiles and aircraft. The humble home where he was born, was never and impediment for this young man to receive an integral education and love from his parents and siblings. This was determinant in forming the personality of this man who from a very young age would always stand out for his ability to make successful negotiations.

Business Affairs

In the work-environment he was exposed to; the world of aircraft and luxury cars, he was able to meet and make relations with individuals of high economical level. In the year 1989 he met Omar Camero, well-known entrepreneur and owner of TELEVEN, who just as Duran, shared a history based in self-induced effort and knowing to identify great opportunities. In Venezuela everyone knows that Camero was a cigarette distributor, which shows that Venezuela is a land of opportunities if you are hard worker and constant.

Duran made his first big business deal with the selling of SONY equipments and microwaves in the chain of stores “PEPEGANGA” with a loan of $1,000,000 from the Latino Bank, which it was provided thanks to the endorsement given to him at that time by Omar Camero. Then, in 1992 Camero gets together with Franklin Duran in an enterprise called DISLACA, which was dedicated to food-importation, distributing to Procter & Gamble. In the year 1993 Duran buys his first aircraft, a Cesna 206.

At about that time Franklin already starts to be a well-known personality in the business world in Venezuela; this begins to bother the enterprise-class oligarchs who controlled the political and economical power, this lead to the hate by traditional bankers and as sad as it is, that same story repeats itself to this day.

Duran is a risk taker; his life has been filled with high risk and intelligent decisions. As in the 90’s, specifically in the years 1993 and 1994, in which Duran begins to travel on his own aircraft in an informal and almost humorous way through all of Venezuela, state by state, buying stocks of CANTV and transforming them in ADR; achieving to multiply them up to seven (7) times its value. Like this, he obtained a gain of almost $10,000,000 of utilities. The envy of some bankers and entrepreneurs who began to see him as a threat, started a campaign of discredit, accusing him and getting out rumors saying his success was based on money laundering. At this time these hidden enemies ignored the truth and didn’t remark that this young business man had as endorsement one of the biggest, most prestigious and solid insurance companies in the country.
Since the 90’s until now, this young man, with his curious, ambitious and competitive temperament continues to invest in the country, buying financial assets in the auctions of FOGADE, in which at the same time he transform them into bonds.
With this financial engineer, he obtains utilities up to 10 times his investment. In the year 1997 Franklin Duran took a high risk; he invested $20,000 and won $275,000 in TYCO. That same year he went to Russia with Citibank’s vice-president, where they searched for aircraft-related businesses, but came back having bought Russian bonds, which no one was willing to pay one penny, nowadays everybody knows how much they are worth.

Referring to the human side and solidarity of Duran, together with his business partner and friend, Carlos Kauffamn, during the tragedy in the state of Vargas, they both incorporated brigades for the victims and putting in disposition helicopters of their own for transporting victims to Caracas and other cities. This information was transmitted in a documentary by the Discovery Channel.

During the oil strike they helped the neediest Venezuelan people.

Franklin, with great sense for business and great trust in his country, invested in Venezuela; acquiring stocks of the VENOCO enterprise, together with Carlos Kauffman. This enterprise belonged to the Sosa, Branger, Boulton and Pietri families, and it was managed by Carmona Estanga. Today, these two young entrepreneurs are owners of VENOCO, one of the most prosperous enterprise of petrochemicals, construction and lubricants in Latin America.

Through the company RUIBAL & DURAN, Franklin and his business partners are representatives and distributors of very important North American enterprises in Venezuela, some of them specialized in selling equipments for the police department and the fire department. They count with all the American Government permits and their sales are never objected for they all fulfil with all the technical requirements and quality control demanded by the OEA. Their price offers are unbeatable by the competition, in some cases they have been able to lower the prices to a 50% in comparison to the purchases made by the states of Carabobo and Zulia. The business of police arms represents to RUIBAL & DURAN just a 5% of their earnings.
Franklin Duran has invested in Venezuela, his not afraid and with his earnings he has invested in articles that are indispensable for his work, such as aircraft, helicopters, buildings, automobiles. The grand majority of his goods are in Venezuela, U.S.A and the Bahamas, and he has a personal fortune that is calculated to be over $800 million.