Dirty money behind Dominican Republic?s economic thrust: experts

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Castle

Silver
Sep 1, 2012
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My domincan Ex-wife used to work for one of the four telephone companies in the country. She worked in the IT department, and was assigned the task to investigate why the amount of phone activations was unexplainably increasing even though the prepaid cards used remained the same. It turns out, prepaid cards actually weren't being used for those new "customers". A deeper investigation showed that there was a huge network of cellphone dealers owned by a colombian vice president of the phone company who were activating cell phones with preloaded balance in the account. They were not using real cards to load the balance, and they were not charging the "customers" for the prepaid minutes. Those "customers" never made any phone call and hence never used the minutes. That's as far as the investigation went. My ex-wife was summoned to a meeting with the president and the suspicious vice president and was told to cease and desist. She did, of course, but was nonetheless laid off a few weeks later. She was harassed for a few weeks after being fired. Threatening phone calls and text messages were a daily thing. Some time later I was told this same colombian guy had been using this method or years. He would be hired at key positions in phone companies, set up the dealer network and start laundering money that way. It would ruin the company, but the job would get done and move one to the next one. Prepaid minutes are sold without a receipt, and that is a huge whole in the system. No wonder there are 4 telcos here and a line of others wanting to enter the market.
 
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the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
33,997
83
0
Castle said:
My domincan Ex-wife used to work for one of the four telephone companies in the country. She worked in the IT department, and was assigned the task to investigate why the amount of phone activations was unexplainably increasing even though the prepaid cards used remained the same. It turns out, prepaid cards actually weren't being used for those new "customers". A deeper investigation showed that there was a huge network of cellphone dealers owned by a colombian vice president of the phone company who were activating cell phones with preloaded balance in the account. They were not using real cards to load the balance, and they were not charging the "customers" for the prepaid minutes. Those "customers" never made any phone call and hence never used the minutes. That's as far as the investigation went. My ex-wife was summoned to a meeting with the president and the suspicious vice president and was told to cease and desist. She did, of course, but was nonetheless laid off a few weeks later. She was harassed for a few weeks after being fired. Threatening phone calls and text messages were a daily thing. Some time later I was told this same colombian guy had been using this method or years. He would be hired at key positions in phone companies, set up the dealer network and start laundering money that way. It would ruin the company, but the job would get done and move one to the next one. Prepaid minutes are sold without a receipt, and that is a huge whole in the system. No wonder there are 4 telcos here and a line of others wanting to enter the market.
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Castle, you must admit that the scheme is ingenious.
 
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dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
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the gorgon said:
anyone who attempts to downplay the importance of dirty money in the DR economy is living in some distant planet.
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i think that keep wanted to make the same point as i, few pages back, that not all torres in SD are dirty money. honest developers will build, sell and then invest in another building. then you have projects and sites that go on for ages, seem to run into "issues" and never get done. and you have businesses surviving despite the fact they are not making money.

drug cartels employ very smart people. they only need to keep one step ahead of the police.
 
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the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
33,997
83
0
dv8 said:
i think that keep wanted to make the same point as i, few pages back, that not all torres in SD are dirty money. honest developers will build, sell and then invest in another building. then you have projects and sites that go on for ages, seem to run into "issues" and never get done. and you have businesses surviving despite the fact they are not making money.

drug cartels employ very smart people. they only need to keep one step ahead of the police.
Click to expand...

certain things are not hard to figure. the country is plagued by a lack of productivity, has no electricity to speak of, has no high tech or value added exports, has a very poorly skilled workforce, and ranks very low on the competitive scale. it is rife with corruption, and misallocation of resources. yet, even in the worst of economic downturns, it manages to be showing growth figures that make economists bat eyelids.

do the math...
 
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