The Abinader administration left out Haitian businessman Gilbert Bigio from the list of persons he recently ordered the Migration Agency to impede entry to the Dominican Republic. According to a report in Diario Libre, the list otherwise includes all those accused by the United States and Canada of providing financial and logistic support to armed gangs in Haiti.
Diario Libre also reports that Portes Goris is known as a close and powerful collaborator of Bigio. Pablo Daniel Portes Goris continues as financial advisor to the Executive Branch. Daniel Portes Goris is regional CEO of GB Group and its Energy division GB Energy, the company founded by Gilbert Bigio. This same entity acquired in 2012 Chevron Texaco’s assets in Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Sint Maarten.
Portes Goris has been advisor to the Executive Branch on financial matters (Decree 332-20) since the start of the Abinader administration on 16 August 2020.
Diario Libre reports that Portes Goris is identified in the stock market as the legal representative of GB Group. Reuven Shalom Bigio, son of Gilber Bigio, has been the company’s president and treasurer since 13 December 2022. His daughter Laurence Sarah Bigio serves as secretary and María del Mar Rodríguez Fernández is the vice-president.
The government of Canada announced on 5 December 2022 the freezing of assets of Biggi, Reynold Deeb and Sherif Abdallah. The presidential order for the Migration Agency to not not to allow Deep and Abdallah to enter its territory, but made no mention of Biggio.
Furthermore, the newspaper reports on Portes Goris’s ties to former Minister of Public Works, Gonzalo Castillo. Castillo is under domiciliary arrest and investigation for corruption in government. Diario Libre reports that as a businessman, Portes Goris was part of the Perla del Sur Investment Group consortium, with which the former Minister of Public Works, Gonzalo Castillo, bought the Barahona Beach Resort Hotel. Sadhalá Khoury and Rafael Méndez Risk were also part of this group.
The newspaper reveals that the organization Red de Rendición de Cuentas (RRC) filed a complaint in 2020 with the Procuraduría Especializada de Persecución de la Corrupción Administrativa (Pepca) to investigate the transaction made while Castillo was minister, with a 10-year loan from Banreservas of RD$75 million.
Portes Goris has held stakes in other major companies in the country, including the Dominican Petroleum Refinery and the Scotiabank and Progreso banks.
Diario Libre reports that Portes Goris’s Linkedin profile states that he has been advisory board member of Ab InBev Cervecería Nacional Dominicana and board member of Scotiabank Dominican Republic and Banco Dominicano del Progreso.
Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GB Energy and Global Business Analyst Gas/Power and Trading for Shell.
On 5 December 2022, the government of Canada announced that Canada was imposing sanctions affecting Gilbert Bigio, Reynold Deeb and Sherif Abdallah, members of the economic elite in Haiti, on the grounds that these were providing illicit financial and operational support to armed gangs. “Canada has reason to believe these individuals are using their status as high-profile members of the economic elite in Haiti to protect and enable the illegal activities of armed criminal gangs, including through money laundering and other acts of corruption,” stated the government of Canada in making the announcement.
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Diario Libre
Canada Government
Superintendence of Stocks
DR1 News
19 April 2023