The Extinction of Ownership Bill (Extinction of Domain) has languished in Congress through several governments. Now the head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office against Administrative Corruption (Pepca), Wilson Camacho says the fight against corruption needs more actions than speeches, especially on behalf of the legislators whom he urged to approve the Law of Extinction of Dominion without further delay.
The top corruption prosecutor said it would be “very advantageous” for the Public Ministry if the legislators passed the bill that would facilitate recovering assets irregulary obtained in the so-called Medusa, Octopus, Coral and Shell operations. He says the assets are estimated at around RD$15 billion.
At present, the prosecutors have only the measures provided in Money Laundering Law 155-17. Camacho says the law has many limitations.
“We have to be aware that we are working with the legal resources that currently exist, above all with the tools given by the Money Laundering Law, which are very useful but are not all that is needed so the fight against corruption can be effective,” Camacho said in an interview for Hoy newspaper.
He said that the Extinction of Ownership Bill is an asset forfeiture law that would allow the Public Prosecutor’s Office to process the assets without having to wait for the trial of a person who having committed this type of crime, can flee the country and must be extradited, as is currently the case of some.
Of those accused in Operation Medusa, the former chief of staff of the Attorney General’s Office, Rafael Stefano Canó Sacco, is at large and the Pepca has requested the collaboration of Interpol to arrest him. The former official is said to have traveled to Spain.
“We could be pursuing the assets that this person stole from the state and recover them while the process for his extradition is being carried out, but the tools of the money laundering law do not allow us to do so,” explained Camacho. He said the law of extinction mechanism would be an additional tool that would enable the prosecutors to advance the case even if the person is not present.
The anti-corruption prosecutor said that it is risky to quantify exactly the assets stolen from different institutions by the accused in the corruption schemes that have been denounced. He said the numbers change as the investigations advance.
He indicated, however, that in the Medusa case in which the former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez is accused as the alleged ringleader of the scheme, so far RD$6 billion have been accounted for; in Operation Octopus, whose main accused is the brother of former President Danilo Medina, Alexis Medina Sánchez, the estimate is RD$5 billion; and in Coral, headed by General Adán Cáceres Silvestre, RD$3 billion. Cáceres is the former chief security of former President Danilo Medina.
“We intend that as these processes reach the courts, these assets will be confiscated in favor of the state”, emphasized the anti-corruption prosecutor. Nevertheless, he urged the passing of the ownership extinction bill to ensure that this happens. Camacho said the bill has passed several times in the Senate to be blocked in the Chamber of Deputies.
It is a complementary law ordered by the Constitution of 2010 in its article 51 numeral 6 to establish the “regime of administration and disposition of seized and abandoned goods in the criminal proceedings and in the trials of extinction of dominion foreseen in the legal system”.
The law has been passed in many countries abroad.
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Hoy
6 July 2021