Samuel Beníquez

Samuel Beníquez Méndez (born October 28, 1971) is a Puerto Rican businessman, musician, composer, producer, communication strategist, and author of several books, including "Tu alto precio... Mi Gran Valor" and “El Niño Versus la Bestia”.

Beníquez was born at Doctors' Center Hospital in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

His biological mother is Antonia Beníquez Seguí.

He was adopted by his maternal uncle and aunt, Félix Beníquez Quiñones and Ada Méndez Castro, on February 21, 1973.

However, Samuel Beníquez's biological mother, Antonia Beníquez Seguí, remained in the Beníquez–Méndez family home, taking care of her son as if she were his nanny.

Beníquez Méndez grew up believing this lie and was indoctrinated in the Congregación Mita religion, which was founded in Puerto Rico and is now established in several parts of the world.

Beníquez Méndez has studied music since age six and excels on instruments such as the clarinet, flute, and saxophone.

Consequently, they alleged that her consent was unlawful, which rendered the resolution issued February 21, 1973, null and void.

Unlawful consent deprives the Court of jurisdiction, making the resolution issued nonexistent.

The petitioners also argued that Beníquez Méndez was raised by his mother from birth and even moved with her at the age of six to live at a residence other than that of his aunt and uncle.

Furthermore, they added that the Beníquez–Méndez couple only sought to adopt the minor in order to financially profit off a child they supposedly never raised.

He was a member of Mita Congregation's wind band until 1995 and received a scholarship to study music at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus.

He therefore founded the financial institution First Home Financial with his brother Samuel Ortiz in 1995, which has locations in several towns in Puerto Rico and the US state of Pennsylvania.

He held the position of CEO of the bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the corporation.

Following this, he was the CEO of successful companies such as ER Remodeling & Construction Co., Imperial Music Studio, Imperial College, Black Dot Records, BD Authors, Imperial Recording Studios, and Imperial Artists, among others, while he continued his studies at SMC University, where among other obtained degrees, he graduated from a mini MBA in Business Hacker; a very important degree for him, because he has always been involved in everything related to technology, innovation and information systems.

As founder of these companies, in addition to administration, he was also directly involved in marketing and media relations.

His exciting career in the corporate world since he was young has provided him with important experiences in administration, marketing, communications, and the responsibility of being in charge of the losses and earnings of different companies.

About thirty years later, on May 13, 2003, Beníquez Méndez and his mother, Beníquez Seguí, filed a motion before the Court of First Instance to nullify the adoption.

They largely argued that Beníquez Seguí was coerced and intimidated by the Beníquez–Méndez couple to consent to the adoption of her son.

On September 13, 2003, the Court of First Instance overruled the petitioners’ motion with an unsubstantiated resolution.

This decision was never appealed or revised, becoming final and enforceable.

Later, on November 4, 2004, Beníquez Seguí and Beníquez Méndez filed a second claim regarding nullity of adoption procedures and declaration of filiation in which the petitioners alleged that Beníquez Seguí, when she was still pregnant with Beníquez Méndez, was coerced, threatened, and subjected to “mental, moral, emotional, and religious pressures” to give her consent for the Beníquez-Méndez couple to adopt her son.

Separately from what they alleged in their first motion, the petitioners also argued that the pattern of coercion and intimidation in question was because Mr. Teófilo Vargas Seín, spiritual leader of the Mita Congregation religion, was the biological father of Beníquez Méndez and that the aunt and uncle – together with other people from the congregation – orchestrated the adoption in question in order to hide that fact.

In agreement with the above, they requested that the adoption under examination be ruled null and that the Demographic Registrar be ordered to register Beníquez Méndez as the biological son of Beníquez Seguí and Vargas Seín.

The legal case spent nearly 10 years in court and even reached the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, concluding in a resolution by the Supreme Court ordering that the proceedings of the case be continued and that Teófilo Vargas Seín, better known as Aarón, forcibly recognize the filiation, thus granting Samuel Beníquez Méndez the right to know his true paternal filiation.

As such, Aarón was officially summoned to appear at the Histocompatibility Institute of the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico on March 11, 2013, at 8:00 a.m. to take a DNA test together with Samuel Beníquez Méndez and Antonia Beníquez Seguí.

The parties, including Samuel Beníquez Méndez, his vilified mother, Antonia Beníquez Seguí, and the lawyer who had brought the paternity suit for 10 years, Nicolás Nogueras, were summoned to the Court of San Juan to hear the reading of the DNA test on March 25, 2013, by Judge Arlene Sellés Guerrini.

The laboratory results reflected a 99.99% probability that Aarón is Samuel Beníquez Méndez's biological father.

Beníquez Méndez, at the age of 41 years, celebrated that he had a father, named Aarón, and that his mother was vindicated.

However, Teófilo Vargas Seín, the top leader of the Mita Congregation, “left” the case and to this day, has never wanted to establish a relationship of friendship, love, spirituality, or fatherhood with his biological son, Samuel.

Samuel Beníquez Méndez, CEO of AVFA, got his start by working at a computer center at a very young age.

Beníquez Méndez was 16 years old and still in high school when he began working as a data processor at the Government of Puerto Rico's General Services Administration's Computer Center, the only teenager hired at that time and on a night shift.

At age 18, following the example set by his father, he began working at the Hermanos Unidos Savings and Credit Cooperative in Hato Rey, San Jose, Puerto Rico.

He held a number of positions in that line of work within the organization until he decided to work independently as an insurance and investment agent with the company Primerica Financial Services (formerly part of Citigroup), becoming a regional vice president while he attended the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, where he received his Bachelor's in Business Administration with a Concentration in Marketing.

Meanwhile, he learned a lot about insurance and investments surrounded by qualified people with extensive knowledge in the field.

Beníquez Méndez had always intended to build a career and after succeeding, start his own company.

His experience in fields such as technology, innovation and academia took him, approximately from 2013 to 2017, to be part (along with the icons of the industry in Puerto Rico) of the Videogame Cluster of the government agency "Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO)", of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

This cluster was commissioned by this period to promote the Puerto Rico video game industry internationally with a plan that bet on talent and the strengthening of the competitiveness of companies and the academy of said archipelago.

Today, Beníquez Méndez is the CEO of AVFA Group, a company with offices in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and the continental United States.

The company offers public relations services, strategic communications, copywriting, media services, interactive services, and business advice to all types of companies.