Judge Jose Alejandro Vargas will be hearing the DGII case against Tremols Payero business group. The DGII has taken the business conglomerate to court for RD$4.13 billion in unpaid taxes that has now grown to a DGII debt of RD$9.32 billion, including interest. The DGII accuses the company of intimidating DGII employees and having offered them US$5 million as a bribe along with RD$50 million and a plot of land as payment for the fraud they are accused of.
The group, which has been operating in the country since 2009 selling alcohol for human consumption, focused on the tourist market, where they marketed Royal liqueurs and Tremols rum to all-inclusive hotels.
Sources linked to the investigation, identify the Tremols case as one of the biggest illegal operations detected in alcoholic beverage sales in the Dominican Republic.
According to the inspection of their accounts by the Tax Agency, starting in 2012, the company operations set up a mafia-kind network to evade paying taxes. The illicit operation allegedly laundered money as well. Authorities have collected evidence of tax evasion from 2012 to 2016.
According to the investigation by the DGII, the Tremols Payero group practically controlled alcoholic beverage sales at all-inclusive hotels. This included the operation of clandestine alcohol-making factories and illegal sales of cigarettes. At least two businesses per month have since been closed in the cities of La Vega, Higuey, Moca and Santo Domingo.
Following the investigations, of the three distilleries Tremols Payero operated, one has been shuttered while another one has been seized by authorities. The Tremols Payero group executives are accused of conspiracy and clandestine trade in taxable products, perjury or falsehoods in sworn statements, tax fraud, falsehoods in trade deeds and use of false trade writing, fraud, money laundering and association of criminals. The tax fraud was said to have been committed from 2010 to 2017 through several affiliated companies. The tax fraud is quantified at RD$707 million in ITBIS tax evasion, RD$1.037 million in Income Tax evasion, and RD$2.384 million in Selective Luxury Tax evasion.
The mafia operation was so ensconced that the DGII decided to shut down two entire departments within the tax agency itself, including the Department of Alcohol. Nearly 300 employees of the DGII are suspected of being involved in the fraud.
So far, thirteen people have been charged, including the two children of Ramon Tremols who were at the forefront of the business. They are currently in Switzerland and it appears that the key players are abroad as some of their loans were guaranteed by foreign credit cards.
The accused are: the Tremols Payero brothers, Ramón Rafael Tremols, Eddy Samuel, Leonardo Antonio, Hervys Rafael and Daniel de Jesús. Also Rafael Alberto Tremols Acosta, Eduardo de Jesús Tremols Cruz, Carmen Adela Tremols Cruz, Maritselly Cruz López, Néstor López Alcantara, Waskar Alberto González Payero and Doris Alexandra López Urbaez, among others.
The companies that were investigated for the case include: Suplidores Generales Dominicanos (Supligedom), Licores y Bebidas del País (Libepa), Bodegas Iberia, Dominican Hotel Register Company (Doterco), Licores y Bebidas Dominicanas (Libedom), Constructora Aspen, Inmobiliaria E.J.T and Licores Royal.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
El Nacional
Noticias SIN
30 January 2019
