The BanCredito fraud case took another odd turn when it was announced that the firm hired to audit the actions of the Banco Leon subsidiary BanCredito was an insurance company, which is prohibited under Dominican law 146-02. So it turns out that the judgments against Manuel Arturo Pellerano Pena and Juan Felipe Mendoza Gomez were passed with improper evidence. Pellerano and Mendoza were charged with financial improprieties in the BanCredito case on 17 August. In order to reach this conclusion, the firm Duarte and Associates was hired by the Central Bank, with no public consultation, to audit the books, but Duarte and Associates is an insurance firm, eliminating them from the auditing of financial records. The firm had no previous auditing experience. In order to be able to provide auditing services the firm must first have authorization from the Banking Superintendence.