Two days after the opposition PRD faction led by former President Hipolito Mejia accused party president Miguel Vargas of improperly obtaining a US$15 million loan from the government-owned bank, BanReservas, Vargas responded to what he described as “malicious and divisive statements.” Reading a document in the company of his lawyers yesterday, Wednesday 15 January, the PRD president admitted taking the loan for his company, General de Galerias Comerciales Mundo Mall S.A. A copy of the letter requesting the loan on 25 July 2011 indicated that the amount required was US$20 million, not US$15 million.
Following this, and using the word “lie” repeatedly, Vargas said that he had the qualifications to receive a loan for this amount, since his commercial registry, of 31 March 2006, showed his capital to be RD$628 million. Regarding what was “approved in a record time of 11 days,” he said that the process lasted seven months from the request until the disbursal, but he did not say when that was. According to photocopies that were shown, the loan contract was signed on 19 December 2011; and the one for a line of credit with a mortgage guarantee on four parcels of land and improvements, located on Maximo Gomez Avenue and appraised for “a sum of over US$44 million” on 31 January 2012.
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/01/16/i441921_miguel-vargas-maldonado-niega-irregularidades-prstamo-con-banreservas.html
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2014/1/15/307057/Vargas-Maldonado-defiende-prestamo-con-Banco-de-Reservas
http://www.diariolibre.com/destacada/2014/01/16/i441491_banreservas-politiquera-criolla.html