As reported in Diario Libre, businessman Luis Alvarez Renta?s lawyers said that against their client ?no evidence with any judicial proof value? has yet to be presented. Central Bank Governor Jose Lois Malkum mentioned Alvarez Renta when the government went public regarding the RD$55 billion Baninter banking collapse. Malkum mentions overdrafts and loans totaling RD$3.83 billion were erased from Bank Invest and states that the company was presided and managed by Luis Alvarez Renta.
Lawyers Eric Raful and Angel Delgado Malagon said that the Central Bank presented incomplete documentation to the National District prosecutor?s office on the benefits and compensations received by the businessman in the sale of Bank Invest. The lawyers claim that Alvarez Renta ceased as president of the company in April 2002, more than a year before the Baninter scandal was revealed by the Central Bank.
El Caribe says this is being disputed because other documents say the contrary. The newspaper mentions for instance that when it became public that Alvarez Renta would be the new Dominican ambassador in France, he included in his CV and protocolar documentation to the government of France the information that ?through his subsidiary, Bank Invest, S.A. Luis Alvarez Renta & Asociados keeps a position in the Santo Domingo Bourse.?
El Caribe reports that the business consultant told the judge that regarding the checks he authorized to his secretary Zaida Rodr?guez in 2003, he was acting on instructions from the president of Baninter, Ram?n B?ez Figueroa, and that the money was used ?to pay debts of the bank or of Mr. B?ez Figueroa.? Alvarez said he was never an employee of B?ez Figueroa, rather a consultant to his companies.
Meanwhile, Judge Eduardo S?nchez Ortiz, who is preparing the case, ordered that Alvarez Renta be transferred from the Ciudad Nueva Palacio de Justicia detention hall to the Najayo Jail in San Crist?bal, but news sources say he will remain in the city jail for safety reasons.