Vivian Lubrano de Castillo, the 55-year-old executive vice president of the Banco Intercontinental, began her career in banking as an apprentice in the Chase Manhattan Bank in 1965, ending it at the top of the Baninter scandal and, for the first time in her life, out of a job. Two weeks ago, she was accused of participating in the 55 billion-peso fraud. According to the List?n Diario prize-winning journalist, Ana Mitila Lora, Lubrano is now in prison at a medical center in Santo Domingo and this is a hard test for Hip?lito Mej?a, his government, the judicial system and a Dominican society that has seldom seen any of its upper echelon land behind bars. It is possible that the ?grande dame? is the brains behind the network of schemes designed to cheat the State and the depositors, according to statements made last week by lawyer Artagan P?rez M?ndez, representing the Central Bank. Vivian was one of the industry?s most complete professionals. She had fame as a brilliant, aggressive, and hard-working person. She grew up in a business atmosphere, her father a partner in Mabrano, a company that made crackers. Fellow workers, who asked that their names not be disclosed, said that from the beginning she put her talents on display. One staffer said: ?She had no preparation in banking, but after a year she had been promoted to the collections department. Her promotions were continual. She could feel out where there were opportunities for doing business and she was usually right. She is one of those people at a meeting who is three miles ahead of everyone else. In those hard negotiations with the top brass of the nation?s biggest banks, hers was the voice that was listened to.
Other opinions of Lubrano, however, are less flattering. Another worker said that in her haste to do business, she sometimes cut corners. ?Nothing illegal or robbery, but not within the rules of Chase, either.? At the same time, the same person said that the rules of Chase were not made for the Dominican culture, as he characterized Lubrano ?brazen and risky?. ?Some people who worked with her resigned in disagreement with her style. She generated a lot of business, but in the days when Victor Ca?as was general manager, when the auditors came from New York they found some procedural irregularities and she was asked to leave the bank.? Chase left the country a year later.
In 1990, Lubrano joined Baninter and hired some of her team from Chase. Her new duties were to promote investment banking, under the bank?s motto of ?Everything is possible?. Her office was on the same floor as Ramon B?ez Figueroa?s and her house in La Romana?s Casa del Campo was next door to his. Former Baninter executives said that Lubrano was excessive in her business negotiations. ?To her people, she loaned money at very low interest and paid very high interest on their deposits, without regard for the financial health of the bank.? The uneasiness among Lubrano?s co-workers reached its peak when the negotiations to fuse Baninter with Banco de Progreso fell through. Some of Lubrano?s former co-workers said that, ?No one can explain how Vivian was so fogged up. She was blind.?
According to Ana Mitila Lora, these executives attribute the failed deal to the fact that Lubrano?s sister is a Banco de Progreso vice president. The facts show that Lubrano never considered the possibility that her bank would fail. Her own personal inheritance left by her father, Charlie Lubrano of Madrano & C?a., was deposited in the bank. These savings are now frozen, along with the inheritance of her daughter-in-law, Leticia Rivera, who is the daughter of the late Don Pedro Rivera (of Induveca). Rivera is also the sister of Ada Rivera, who is married to Ram?n Hip?lito Mej?a, son of President Hip?lito Mej?a.