There is much skepticism in the Dominican population as to the final outcome of the most recent administrative corruption scandal around three cabinet officials in the Medina administration (2012-2016 and 2016-2020). A Diario Libre editorial today says the most recent corruption files in Operación Calamar (Squid) that have been released to the general public could be but fireworks.
Recently judges have overruled testimonies presented by the Public Prosecution Office with testimony against the director of the National Lottery appointed in the Abinader government. The director was sent home with no judgment. This could serve as a precedent for a similar judgment for accused in the Medina administration. As occurred in the National Lottery case, much of the evidence is based on testimony of former government officers, contractors and employees that have reached deals with the prosecutors.
The reality is that the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Luis Henry Molina is a former leading campaign activist and member of the Central Committee of the opposition Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) until his appointment to the SCJ position. Media reports have insistently said that the past presidents Danilo Medina and Leonel Fernandez or their close followers had a deciding say in the appointing of many of the key judges in the country.
Meanwhile, former President Danilo Medina traveled to New York on a private plane less than 48 hours before the Public Prosecution Office ordered the arrests of the Hacienda Minister (Donald Guerrero), Administrative Minister of the Presidency (Jose Ramon Peralta) and Public Works Minister (Gonzalo Castillo) of the Medina administration.
Diario Libre has highlighted how the Public Prosecution Office corruption investigations have been getting closer and closer to Medina himself. His brother, Juan Alexis Medina is accused of corruption in the Operacion Antipulpo. Medina’s sister, Carmen Magalys Medina is also accused of corruption at the Reformed State Enterprises (Fonper). Medina’s former security is accused in the Coral and Coral 5G corruption cases. Medina’s attorney general, Jean Alain Rodríguez is accused of corruption in the Medusa case.
Now, as occurred in those cases, the Public Prosecution Office has pressed charges substantiated by information provided by witnesses that seek reductions in the charges that may be pressed against them.
The three main people that have told the state prosecutors what was going on are Francisco Pagán, former director of the Supervisory Office for Public Works of the Presidency (Oisoe); Ramón Emilio Jiménez Collie, alias Mimilo, and Bolivar Ventura, two major government contractors, are telling on Donald Guerrero and Jose Ramon Peralta and make up a large part of the evidence presented in the Squid Operation corruption file.
On Monday, 20 March 2023, the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Administrative Prosecution (Pepca) filed a request for preventive detention against the former presidential candidate and former minister of public works, the former administrative minister of the Presidency, the former minister of Hacienda and 17 other persons detained in Operacion Calamar.
The investigating body keeps under reserve the names of four persons it says are under arrest but their identities have not been revealed in the official notes concerning the process.
The Public Prosecution Office requests that the case against former Minister of Public Works Gonzalo Castillo, former Administrative Minister of the Presidency José Ramón Peralta and former Minister of Hacienda Donald Guerrero be declared complex. This gives the PEPCA 18 months to present charges. The three former cabinet ministers are accused of being ringleaders of a corruption network that diverted more than RD$17 billion from the taxpayers through the ministries under their charge and other state entities.
Mirna Ortiz, director of litigation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, says that the Operation Squid file consists of 3,000 pages and 1,200 elements of evidence that support the charges of criminal association, embezzlement, coalition of officials, falsification of public and private documents, bribery and illicit campaign financing on an unprecedented scale, money laundering, among other crimes charged against the detainees.
In addition to the three former ministers, also detained in the preventive jail of the District Palace of Justice are the lawyer Angel Lockward, former Comptroller General of the Republic, Daniel Omar Caamaño; the former director of the State Sugar Council (CEA), Luis Miguel Piccirilo; former director of the National Cadastre, Claudio Silver Peña, and the former directors of Casinos and Gaming, Oscar Chalas Guerrero and Julián Omar Fernández.
Also, Roberto Santiago Moquete, Agustín Mejía Ávila, Emil Dávila Fernández, Marcial Reyes, Alejandro Constanzo, Yahaira Brito Encarnación and Ana Linda Fernández.
As occurred in the previous major corruption case files, the Public Prosecution Office has shared with the media the accusatory file that is now being featured in the media. Among the accusations is that former Minister of Hacienda Donald Guerrero laundered millions through a network of sports betting businesses.
There are accusations much of the irregular deals that happened at the Ministry of Hacienda were to collect funds to finance the presidential campaign of Gonzalo Castillo, the former businessman turned Minister of Public Works and then presidential candidate for the then ruling Dominican Liberation Party. Then President Danilo Medina had sought to change the Constitution to enable himself to run a third time, but this was not possible. He would defeat former President Leonel Fernandez in the primary held in October 2019. Fernandez complained he was a victim of computer fraud.
A mob of PLD-decked individuals had to be dispersed from the Ciudad Nueva prosecution office on 20 March 2023. The individuals primarily were protesting the arrest of former PLD presidential candidate, businessman Gonzalo Castillo. Castillo is accused of irregularly signing billions in asphalt contracting when he was Minister of Public Works. He defends his innocence.
Prosecutors in Puerto Rico have announced their willingness to cooperate in the investigations. An independent investigator in Puerto Rico says that former Minister of Hacienda Donald Guerrero laundered his gains from the corruption network in the Dominican Republic in several vehicle dealerships in Puerto Rico. The governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, went on record saying his government would collaborate in the investigations.
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21 March 2023