Police investigations reveal that the accounting department scam discovered at the ADP public school teachers’ union was more likely to be worth more than RD$15 million, not RD$3 million as originally disclosed. The scam makes apparent the lack of accounting controls in that organization. The scam was discovered when by chance on 9 March a call from the bank confirming an RD$203,800 check was taken by Fernando Antonio Rodriguez, vice president of the union. When he asked the president of the ADP Olimpia Gonzalez about the check, she did not recall having signed one for that amount. Later it was established that the check had originally been signed for RD$3,800 to pay for the rent of tents for an ADP protest activity. Accounting department personnel added the extra "two hundred" after the check was signed. The Police said the scheme had been successful since 1997. Suspects are Carmen Gregoria Gutierrez Sosa, secretary in the Finances Department, Ivelisse Francisca Saldaña Pontier, an accounting assistant and department messenger Virgilio Mejia Florencio who have been arrested. The scope of the fraud is being determined by the amount of purchases made by the accounting personnel. Among the purchases is a three-floor building, two residences, two pick ups and a car, home furnishings, credit card purchases including travel expenditures made by the suspects.
