El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish affiliate of the Miami Herald, focuses on the Baninter scandal and Dominican dealmaker Luis Alvarez Renta. In the government?s address to the nation in which it disclosed the existence of Baninter?s parallel banking system, Central Bank Governor Jose Lois Malkum linked Alvarez Renta to Baninter?s subsequent collapse and the RD$55-billion hole the scandal created in the Dominican economy.
The Herald article draws attention to Alvarez Renta?s most recent divorce and the suit his ex-wife maintains against him, saying that her former lawyer estimated the fortune of the 53-year-old Venezuelan-born Alvarez at US$87.8 million.
Alvarez had been the president of Bank Invest, a company described as having accumulated a debt with Baninter of US$244 million, which, according to the Central Bank, was fraudulently erased. Alvarez argues that he sold Bank Invest in September 2001 to Sippany Holdings Inc., a company owned by Ram?n B?ez Figueroa, the president of Baninter, while continuing to sign checks for the company, in B?ez? name.
http://www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/6194836.htm