Central Bank manager Ervin Novas Bello says that the problem with the RD$2,000 bill 2013 series originated in France at the banknote printer, Oberthur Fiduciaire, one of the leading private security printers in the world. As reported in El Dia, when the rejects from the printing operation should have been pulped, some 8,403 RD$2,000 banknotes went missing. Nova said that the bills that are circulating in the country were neither issued nor ever released by the Central Bank. The Central Bank says that if anyone has had problems with the RD$2,000 bill, they would change it for good 2000 bills in circulation.
Novas said that as of yesterday, Thursday 7 November they had detected 162 bills suspect to be the result of an irregular import into the Dominican Republic of the bills stolen in France as a result of the company’s security breach. He said he does not know how many are circulating locally. As reported, 2,336 of the RD$2,000 banknotes were discovered in France.
As reported in Diario Libre, the Central Bank was notified about the problem on 17 July, but that the first public notification of the circulation of the bills was not made until 1 November.
“The Central Bank has not made the 2013 bills legal tender.” He said the shipment of the bills would not be used in the country.
Santo Domingo prosecutor Olga Dina Llaverias says that a man is under arrest in connection with the case. Lawyer Tomas Castro identified him as his client Ciriaco Ventura Liranzo, an exchange house owner in Santo Domingo East. As reported in Diario Libre, Ventura exchanged US$82,000 on 31 October receiving the payment in RD$2,000 bills or RD$3,493,200.
The Central Bank announced it would take legal action against the French banknote printer for the damage caused by the problem.
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic is warning the public that these invalid RD$2,000 bills are in circulation. The bank makes it clear that this warning only applies to the RD$2,000 bill that appears with the year or series 2013 since all other bills in other denominations bearing the year 2013 are legal tender. For more information, call 809 221 9111, extension 3839 between 8:30am and 5pm.
www.oberthur-fiduciaire.com