The Santo Domingo Stock Exchange (BVRD) announced that José Gregorio (Gregory) Salcedo Llibre has resigned from the position of chairman of the board. The position will temporarily be held by vice president Joel Santos Echavarría as of 3 July 2019.
The announcement comes after Salcedo Llibre was linked to covert transfers from the Brazilian construction firm, Odebrecht. Somos Pueblo online news service had reported that Salcedo Llibre is the president of the Value Added Finance Incorporated (codename Tigres) company that, according to the investigation by the ICIJ received secret payments from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. Value Added Finance is on the list of companies included in the files leaked and reportedly received US$500,000 in transactions from the Structured Operations Division of Odebrecht handling bribe payments, as revealed by a New York Court case.
Salcedo Llibre is the second top ranking executive to resign after the revelations made by the ICIJ. The first was José Manuel Guzmán Ibarra of the Banco de Reservas.
Prior to his position at the Stock Market Board, Gregory Salcedo was external financial advisor to the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE) for the Punta Catalina thermoelectric power plant bidding progress, together with Magín Díaz, Carlos Contreras, Carmen Zaida Díaz, Danilo Santos and Manuel Rodríguez, from 18 June 2013 to the awarding of the contract to Odebrecht on 18 November 2013, reported Somos Pueblo.
Somos Pueblo reported that once the commission authorized the deal, the current president of the Dominican Stock Market received a secret payment of US$500,000.
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BVRD
Somos Pueblo
Diario Libre
El Dia
4 July 2019