The headlines cry ?Embezzlement? and ?Fraud? and they concern the unfolding series of problems facing the Central Bank as a result of the collapse of the Banco Intercontinental (Baninter). In the unusual setting of the Presidential Palace, and before a national television and radio audience, Central Bank Governor Jos? Lois Malkum tried to explain the depth and complexity of the Baninter situation. Malkum recounted before the President and his cabinet, the press and important government officials, the major points in the bank?s collapse. Among the Baninter moves, Malkum cited that between January and March of this year the bank erased nearly RD$17 billion from the books of a clandestine bank it was operating, thereby freeing that bank?s shareholders, businesses and friends from debt.
According to the Central Bank governor, Baninter operated a clandestine bank that was completely unknown to the Superintendence of Banks and the Central Bank itself. In 1989, according to the report generated by officials of the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, Baninter put into place a computer system that permitted it to run two banks at the same time, one of which was unknown to the public. ?One bank was open to supervision and another, clandestine bank — that is, a unit that operated outside official supervision — whose accounts and transactions were hidden from everyone except a few executives of Baninter close to the majority stockholder,? said Malkum. In his declaration, Malkum also said that the technological platform used to hide these operations was designed in the Dominican Republic. The existence of the hidden bank only became known during the attempted fusion of Baninter with the Banco de Progreso Dominicano. The Central Bank official announced that the government would take over all of the businesses that were tied to either Baninter or to Ram?n B?ez Figueroa.
For the complete written text in English of the press conference of the Central Bank, see
http://dr1.com/news/2003/051403_baninter.shtml