A judge of the Permanent Attention Office of the National District ordered lawyer Johnny Portorreal to serve up to 18 months of preventive custody. Portorreal is accused of swindling hundreds of people with the surname Rosario. He is accused of billing more than RD$16 million for services to secure a supposed billionaire inheritance for the family members.
Judge Rigoberto Sena declared the case complex and ordered Portorreal to serve the preventive detention in the Najayo Jail in San Cristóbal.
The judge said that around 283 people have demanded that Portorreal deliver on his proposal to secure the inheritance in banks in the country and abroad left as the result of the sale of the lands used by the Barrick Gold mining company, previously known as La Rosario.
The judge says that the claims placed by the victims of being swindled has yet to be proven in court.
“The state benefits from this mine, the Barrick Gold company benefits, but the Rosario family has not benefited. Who are the swindlers? If the state benefits, Barrick, and the family, which is the owner of the land, does not benefit, then who are the swindlers?”, questioned Mr. Raymundo Tirado, one of those who seeks to benefit from the Rosario inheritance.
Dozens continue to defend Portorreal, convinced he will deliver on his promise.
State prosecutor Rosalba Ramos has explained that the name Rosario for the mining operation came from Honduras and has nothing to do with the Dominican family.
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El Caribe
11 July 2022