The Baninter Fraud is now official. Central Bank report

What we had all feared and kept talking about for months here has now been made official by Central Bank Chairman Jose Lois Malkum thru a major TV address where he stated that a group of bank officials and shareholders committed the greatest bank fraud in our history by using savers funds to fund their personal debts abroad, paying off politicians, media people and buying hundreds of other businesses for personal gain and fame.

The fraud exceeds US$500 million dollars. The government has to take responsibility for close to RD$17,000 million which cannot be now recovered to be able to pay savers and investors not involved in this fraud.

Baninters chief officers involved will now be charged with the greatest fraud in Dominican history. Malkum even went as far as to mention that the actions by R.M. "Figureo"(my own nickname for him) is tantamount to treason, since DRs national security may have been affected.

The Central Bank will seek help from Banco Internacional de Desarrollo and U.S. authorities to help Hippo carry thru this huge mess. Malkum mentioned that Figureo has been at this for 14 years. He also blamed some of the problems with the dollar on the millionaire tranfers been made to foreign accounts to help pay for the incredible debts accumulated by these thieves.

Malkum also threatened to jail and punish anyone who broadcasts or publishes any information leading to false rumors or wronful information that could cause damage to DRs financial system

Let it be known that I am just passing information being made public by the government. Unless what I saw and heard on TV tonight is a dream, I believe I am not making this up. This is the most unreal thing I have ever seen on TV in my lifetime.

In fact, Malkum even mentioned the case against banker Keating in that huge fraud in the U.S. as a similar case, but perhaps bigger, because of the magnitude in this small country.

He also reassured savers and investors that the banking system is safe and that their money is safe. But he also said that the government will carry a heavy load in solving the damage done by Baninters fraud boys.

All properties, cars, luxury goods and assets owned by the Baninter group have now been confiscated and a major indictment will be forthcoming against these thieves. The bank shareholders will lose everything.

TW

I can say it now

I can now talk about some things that I could not mention before, because of the threat by the present Hippo dictatorship against those who talk about financial things they may find offensive to their needs. I have been for months mentioning about this clown, which I have nicknamed Mr. Figureo, the biggest white collar thief in our history. I have been called real bad names by big mouth Alvaro Arvelo from Z-101s Gobierno de La Ma?ana because of my calls to that station denouncing this ?fraud of a man? who financed his multimillion wedding with my money and your money. His wedding was attended by every top politician, businessman and high military officials, who enjoyed this pharaonic feast at the expense of the taxpayers. Mr. Arvelo called me ?pelafustan?, ?liar? and told me that I was taken advantage of Figureos situation and ?haciendo le?a del arbol caido?. In other words, Mr. Arvelo was Figureos biggest supporter in the media. Why??? What can he say now? In additon to this, here are things I knew and some I did not know that are now public. 1)Figureo bought $million pesos jeepetas for Leonel Fernandez and Hippo. He financed Leonels Global Foundation(I always thought the money for this came from peso devaluation priviledged information in the last months of his administration) He financed the PRD congressional election and presidential campaign and reelection campaign. 2)Figureo covered expenses for presidential travel expenses, the Cumbre de Las Americas in Bavaro. 3)Figureo gave 10 Rolex gold presidential watches to Pepe Goico priced at US$60,000. 4)Figureo gave financial aid to 70 DR generals, to members of the DR Supreme Court, Hatuey de camps and Danilo Medina, former presidential candidate in 2000 for the PLD. 5)Figureo funded Balaguers toys for Christmas campaign at maximo Gomez Avenue, something I have always denounced as a form of welfare and prostitution of our children, which promotes vagrancy, dependency and institutional begging. I have likewise denounced tourists who travel to DR to bring gifts and toys to poor children, mturning them into misers and beggars and giving them a bad example, rather than offering them some form of earning their keep. 6)Figureo paid for 75% of Haitian conspirator turned Dominican Jose Francisco Pe?a Gomez*s medical bills for cancer treatment. He also financed his resort home in Cambita, San Cristobal. 7)Figureo paid for millions in cellular bills for government officials and military officers. 8)Fiugureos US$18 million dollar yatch is now repossessed. 9)Figureo bought houses and apartments for his political friends in Miami and other cities(list will be out soon) 10)The top 3 Baninter officials are now in custody at the Attorney General office.Among them, Vivian L. Del Castillo and Marcos Baez Cocco, VPs. Both of them drove dream machines which were parked in chains at Baninter headquarters. One of them, a golden 2003 Mercedes S500 priced over $2,000,000 which I often told my friends about as being of suspicious origin because it does not fit its tacky looking owner and the banker image. Soon you may also hear about a former friend of mine, which I have mentioned before here, who in our teenage years was a beggar in NYC and used to beg me for change, who later surfaced as one of DR best historians(I don?t know where he learned history) and never went to school in NYC, while I was in college. This Baninter man was a VP and I personally nicknamed him in NYC as ?Fu Ling Chan?. He is the creator of the infamous Dukes of Baninter Diablos who wore $25,000 costumes at the La Vega Carnival and was responsible for the super-infamous ?Solido como Baninter? Sammy Sosa campaign, which is the greatest advertising embarrassment in history. 11)Figureo threatens now to dust off Pepegate stories which amount to more than $500 million and he will begin to name names because a deal was not worked out to save him. Pepe Goico will be big news again. 12) Because of the major implications in this case, the DR drug agency will be involved in the investigations. 13)Hippo was forced to come out in public and place Mr. Malkum in the hot seat not because of keeping his word he would fight crime, but because his government was caught red handed with this bomb in their hands by international agencies and squealers who sneaked information. 14)Read the Listin Diario editorial in todays first page, where the p?per claims the whole thing is a plot by Hippo to take over the media for his reelection campaign. I believe both the fraud and the reelection trick. 15)Luis Alvarez Renta, who was rewarded by Hippo with the DR ambassadorship to France got a fake Baninter loan for US$150 million dollars!!! He was properly known as ?The Great Negotiator?. Now we know why. 16)Vincho Castillo, former DR drug chief has been chosen by Figureo as his defense lawyer. Ramon Pina Acevedo is the other lawyer. 17)The ?dolarizing? of the DR economy campaign conducted now by DR financiers, economists and investors is a plan by the same people to save their hide by using dollars taken out of DR to pay their financing debts, instead of using depreciated pesos. By the way, interest debt on the Baninter fraud is now at $22,000 million, 25% of the national budget!!! 18) The figure I used was understated at US$500 million. It now stands according to international agencies at over $2,000 million, more than 80% of our national budget. 19)I hear that luxury prison cells are being prepared for the Baninter boys at Najayo prison now. But Figureo claims he is going down fighting and taken along lots of people to Najayo with him. His lwayers will go on TV tonight take action against Figureos accusers. He will sue some key government people and bankers. 20)I took my certificate out of Baninter exactly on March 23, 2003, just days before the March Madness of $17,000 million exploded, but not before getting my 27% rates. Just riding along and keeping well informed.

TW