The District Attorney of the National District, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, has agreed to consider two complaints against former Public Works Minister Victor Diaz Rua. She did not reveal who had presented the complaints.
The complaints focus on alleged fraud, corruption and money laundering committed during Diaz Rua’s tenure at the Ministry of Public Works. Reynoso said that she has interviewed several people during the investigative process that she has personally led. She also requested an audit by the Chamber of Accounts and information from several state institutions.
Moreover, she proceeded to freeze bank accounts belonging to the former minister with millions of pesos in them by way of an order from a judge at the Court of Instruction.
She noted that they are also investigating Mustafa Abu Naba’a and other people who were involved in what she describes as several crimes related to the process in question.
Reynoso said that her commitment as a career District Attorney is only to the Constitution and the laws. She also warned that whoever is convinced that no crime has been committed does not need to use other resources to defend himself that are different from those ordered by the law. “The crimes under investigation are serious, since they deal with sums of money in the millions that were obtained as the result of acts of corruption committed against Dominican patrimony.”
El Dia reports that seven months ago the Convergencia Nacional de Abogados (Cona) presented cases against Diaz Rua and Mustafa Abu Naba’a. The case is based on the contract for transport, storage and management of asphalt (AC-30) signed by the Ministry of Public Works with Abu Naba’a’s company Sergeant Petroleum in Febuary 2003. Cona also presented a complaint regarding the concession for tolls for several highways to Dominicana de Vias Concesionarias (Dovicon) that committed to investing US$70 million in highway repairs, but according to Cona failed to do so. The US$471.9 million contract with Dovicon, signed in 2010, covered the expansion, repair and maintenance of the Duarte highway, among others. It was cancelled at the start of the Medina administration, but the government had to pay a hefty US$65 million cancellation fee.
www.7dias.com.do/el-pais/2013/05/23/i141240_gobierno-rescinde-contrato-con-empresa-dovicon-recupera-peajes-por-135-millones.html#.Umk8KRZ6VUQ