Former attorney general Jean Alain Rodríguez was sent to custody in Najayo Jail for 18 months. He is to sent to jail regarding multiple criminal charges for his handling of the Attorney General Office (PGR) from 2016 to 2020. It is the first time that a Dominican top prosecutor is sent to jail. Rodríguez’s defense lawyer, Gustavo Biaggi said the the decision would be appealed.
Judge Kenya Romero decided on Tuesday, 13 July 2021 to send the former top prosecutor to pretrial custody in jail primarily on the grounds of possible flight risk. She also ordered the imprisonment of Jonathan Rodriguez Imbert, former administrative and financial director of the PGR. Javier Forteza Ibarra, PGR director of Information Technology and Alfredo Solano Augusto, former deputy financial director were also remanded to custody.
Judge Romero ordered house arrest for Altagracia Guillén Calzado, former administrative deputy director; Rafael Mercedes Marte, former head of the Accounting Department, and Jenny Marte Peña, engineer in charge of construction for the Humanization Plan of the Penitentiary System of the Attorney General Office.
Miguel José Moya, who worked as an advisor to the Attorney General’s Office, was allowed to post bail of one million pesos.
Romero, judge of the Permanent Attention Office of the National District, declared the corruption case “complex” after sitting for three days of charges presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and hearing the defense lawyers’ arguments.
The accused have been held for two weeks in the preventive jail of the Palace of Justice of Ciudad Nueva from where they will be taken to the Najayo jail.
According to the investigations of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), Jean Alain Rodríguez and accomplices are suspect of having embezzled millions of pesos from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). The new prosecutors say the accused incinerated evidence and eliminated the main data sources of the PGR that could serve to incriminate them.
The preliminary investigation indicates the alleged criminal network defrauded the state for more than RD$6 billion. The accusations range from bribery, to prevarication, coalition of officials, falsification of public documents, identity theft, electronic crimes, criminal association and money laundering.
As reported, the investigations indicate that there were several maneuvers to divert millions of pesos, ranging from pretending to carry out staff training, irregularities in the purchasing processes, including those of the Humanization Plan of the Penitentiary System.
In addition, the arrested are accused of diversion of funds through seized and confiscated goods, overpricing in purchases, adulteration and formatting of information data from administrative departments and even using PGR funds to support a political group affiliated to the then ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
El Dia
14 July 2021