A legal dispute presented by Jose Michelen Stefan, who made headlines when he covertly left the DR after being accused of administrative corruption during the government of Salvador Jorge Blanco (1982-86), could affect plans by Globalia group to go ahead immediately with the construction of a 1,050 room resort in the environmentally fragile Park of the East area, as reported in El Caribe. Grupo Globalia (Air Europa-Juan Jose (Pepe) Hidalgo) purchased 246,579 square meters of land in the Park of the East on 28 October 2000. Michelen’s legal case explains that he is the owner of 19.97% of the shares of the Corsario company, in whose name Charles T. Ogryzlo sold the property to Globalia for US$3.7 million. Corsario had purchased the property in 1972, but was not able to develop it when then President Joaquin Balaguer expropriated the property in 1975 to incorporate it into the National Park of the East.
Efforts to exclude the property from the park were futile until at the start of his government, former President Mejia issued Decree 850-00 making this possible. Nevertheless, environmentalists disputed this. Environmental Law 64-00 that Mejia himself had signed into law in his first month in government, banned hotel development in the park.
To get around this, the former President incorporated the desired changes into the Sectorial Law on Protected Areas that he signed into law days before leaving government. As reported in El Caribe, Jose Michelen says that the executives of Corsario incurred in “numerous irregularities.”