Judge Esther Agelan Casasnovas has sentenced 10 of the people accused of fraud and prevarication against the Dominican state in the Plan Renove case to different convictions and fines. According to Diario Libre, among those found guilty is Pedro Franco Badia, former president of Plan Renove, who was sentenced to three years house arrest and a RD$15 million fine. Also convicted were Fabio Ruiz, another former president of Plan Renove, to four years in Najayo Prison and a RD$10 million fine; Paulino Antonio Reynoso was sentenced to two months in prison; Antonio Marte, three years in Najayo Prison and an RD$8 million fine; Milciades Amaro Guzman to three years in prison and a RD$5 million fine; Gervasio de la Rosa to two years in prison and a RD$3 million fine; Blas Peralta to six months imprisonment in Najayo and a RD$2 million fine; Freddy Williams Mendez and Alfredo P. Linares (Cambita) were each sentenced to six months house arrest and RD$1 million fines. Ramon Emilio Jimenez, Johnny Morales, Diogenes Castillo and Siquio Ng were acquitted for lack of sufficient proofs.
Listin Diario reports that the accused were found guilty of defrauding the Dominican state of more than RD$1.9 billion. They were found guilty of violating nine articles of the criminal code and one article of the Constitution, citing embezzlement, criminal association, swindling, falsehoods in public and private writing, and prevarication. The convicted felons said they would appeal against the sentence, whereas the Justice Department described it as “positive”.
The Plan Renove was promoted as the Hipolito Mejia administration (2000-2004) solution to the deficiencies in public transportation in the Dominican Republic. Thousands of vehicles, mainly buses and minibuses, but also station wagons and an assortment of fork lifts and heavy trucks were imported with the government taking on a multi-million dollar loan with commercial banks at non-preferential rates. These vehicles were passed on primarily to members of major transport unions in the DR, and participants received beneficial terms, with the exchange rate risk and overvaluation in the purchases passed on to be paid by Dominican taxpayers.
The case revolves around a US$159-million loan taken on by the Mejia government to finance the acquisition of 5,648 vehicles, purportedly to improve public transportation in the DR. The program was criticized for irregularities from day one, however. In January 2003, even the Mejia administration’s controller general, Federico Lalane, released findings of an audit that found a long list of irregularities, including the allocation of vehicles to family members and friends of Plan Renove’s board of directors of the program and affiliates, the import of trucks and forklifts that had nothing to do with public transportation and irregularities in the method of purchase. The Lalane audit served as base for the case against former Mejia administration officers.