Diario Libre reports that the Public Patrimony Recovery Team (Equipo de Recuperación del Patrimonio Público) had already presented to the judiciary a claim on 5 April 2022 for compensation for the government through the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPCA). At the time, the Pepca had filed a request for compensation for RD$26.8 billion for damages related to the Squid Operation (Operación Calamar). The Public Patrimony Recovery team is made up of lawyers appointed by the Executive Branch, is assisting in the investigations. The deal with the lawyers awards these a generous percentage of what they are able to recovery.
It is only now known officially that the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca) is requesting a hearing into pre-trial measures for the accused in the case that officially was named Operation Calamar when the prosecutor file with the investigations became known with the general public through the media.
The Dominican state filed a criminal complaint and a civil action against several of those arrested in Operation Calamar. The list includes high-profile persons who also appear as witnesses of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the same case. The Pepca says the involved in the case embezzled more than RD$19 billion from the Dominican state.
The principal accused are three former ministers of the Hacienda (Donald Guerrero), Public Works (Gonzalo Castillo) and Administrative Minister of the Presidency (Jose Ramon Peralta).
Based on the same facts described by the Pepca in the request for coercive measures for 20 people arrested last week in Operation Calamar, the state lists eleven people as perpetrators of the crimes of coalition of officials, falsification of public and private deeds, prevarication and embezzlement.
There are also accusations of bribery, intervention in matters incompatible with the quality of public official, illicit enrichment, association of wrongdoers, aggravated swindling to the detriment of the Dominican state, violation of the sworn declaration requirements and laundering of assets.
Diario Libre reports that the accused in the April 2022 file are: Ángel Donald Guerrero, Daniel Omar de Jesús Caamaño, Luis Miguel Piccirillo McCabe, Claudio Silver Peña, Emilio Olivo Toribio, Gonzalo Castillo, Ramón David Hernández, Ramón Emilio (Mimilo) Jiménez Collie, José Arturo Ureña Pérez, Fernando Crisóstomo Herrera, Efraín Santiago Báez Fajardo.
Both businessmen Ramon Jiménez Collie (Mimilo) and Crisóstomo Herrera now figure instead as the main witnesses that Pepca has in the Calamar case, in which it accuses former officials of defalcating the Dominican state with more than RD$19 billion. Besides those mentioned above, the request for coercive measures includes other former officials, such as the former Administrative Minister of the Presidency, José Ramón Peralta, the former Minister of Public Works and former presidential candidate, Gonzalo Castillo, and well-known lawyer and politician Ángel Lockward.
In the prosecutor’s file, 19 other persons are listed as accomplices, including the former administrator of the Banco de Reservas, Simón Lizardo Mezquita, and successors of the deceased Emilio Rivas, former director of Bienes Nacionales, as civilly responsible third parties.
According to the document, the state was affected through its entities, the Ministry of Hacienda, the Comptroller General of the Republic, the National Assets Agency (Bienes Nacionales), the National Cadastre (Catastro Nacional), the State Sugar Council (CEA), the Dominican Agrarian Institute (IAD) and the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings, in its capacity as legal continuator of the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (Oisoe).
Somos Pueblo online platform says that Ramón Emilio (Mimilo) Jiménez Collie, José Arturo Ureña Pérez, Fernando Crisóstomo Herrera recently celebrated being left out of the Operacion Calamar when the Pepca sought pre-trial measures in court in March 2023.
It is unclear if the file placed on 5 April 2022 has been replaced by the more recent file that would be heard on Sunday, 26 March 2023. The pre-trial preventive measures would be postponed on Sunday, after new claimants presented charges against former Medina administration officers. Judge Romero postponed the pre-trial measures hearing in the Operacion Calamar for Wednesday, 29 March 2023 at 9am.
N Digital reports that most of those accused in the Operacion Calamar are wealthy persons that reside in the more expensive neighborhoods in Santo Domingo and La Romana.
Listin Diario reports that PLD deputy Sergio (Goris) Moya was involved with the extortions to allow betting stores to continue in operation. Listin Diario reports that whistleblowers Ramón Emilio (Mimilo) Jiménez Collie, Fernando Crisóstomo, José Arturo Ureña y Frixo Mesina Arvelo told Pepca prosecutors that “Goris” Moya was the coordinator of the collecting of irregular money in the betting chapter of Operation Squid.
According to judge Kenya Romero of the Permanent Attention Court of the National District who is hearing the pre-trial measures arguments, the decision to postpone the pre-trial custody hearing was taken after the appearance of the lawyers representing the new plaintiffs against Gustavo Montalvo, Simón Lizardo, Donald Guerrero, Ángel Lockward and José Ramón Peralta.
As reported in Hoy, one of the plaintiffs is Mario Díaz, secretary general of Fenattransc, a transport association, whose lawyer Manuel Mesa requested that Gustavo Montalvo and Simón Lizardo explain the use of the resources that were charged for the two pesos on premium gasoline and diesel for the renewal of the vehicle fleet through the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes. Gustavo Montalvo rejected the accusations of the transporters affiliated to Fenattransc.
Mario Diaz said that Donald Guerrero, the former Minister of Hacienda, has been sued by the Gatón family because, according to his lawyer, Francisco García Rosa, they gave him RD$1.5 billion but they only received RD$300 million as payment for the expropriation of their land.
Likewise, the Palacio de Justicia was impacted outside by a raudy mob of people protesting against the arrests of the high-ranking former government officers.
Follow the story in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Hoy
El Caribe
Somos Pueblo
Somos Pueblo
Somos Pueblo
N Digital
N Digital
Hoy
El Dia
El Dia
El Caribe
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
27 March 2023