The Supreme Court of Justice ordered the opening of trial against the legislator Rosa Amalia Pilarte (PRM-La Vega), the ruling party deputy accused of being part of a money laundering network resulting from drug trafficking.
Prosecutors have prepared a case that charges the woman of being involved in irregularities for more than RD$4 billion, resulting from businesses headed by her husband, businessman Micky López. Deputy Pilarte has privileged jurisdiction. Furthermore, the ruling PRM party directors say that until she is sentenced, she can remain in her position as a legislator.
The prosecutors say that the legislator cannot justify the large amount of money she has channeled through the banking system.
Before being a legislator, Pilarte worked as a dentist with a wage of RD$36,000 a month.
The court did not order pre-trial coercive measures. Upon leaving the court, Deputy Pilarte and her husband Micky López Florencio regretted the decision of the investigating judge.
According to the file by the Public Ministry, the legislator would have placed more than RD$4 billion in the financial market from narcotic substance trafficking activities of the network allegedly led by her husband. Also charged in the same case are Pilarte’s sons José Miguel López Pilarte and Miguel Arturo López Pilarte, her sister Ada María Pilarte, and the latter’s partner, Manuel Antonio Ynoa Valdez.
The case in the Supreme Court is to be heard by Supreme Court of Justice judge Napoleón Estévez Lavandier.
The court has yet to set the date for the hearings.
Diario Libre reminds its readers that Rosa Amalia Pilarte is just the first of four ruling PRM party legislators under investigation for crimes. The party position has been to allow these to continue as legislators, despite the evidence presented against them by state prosecutors.
The other legislators with legal cases against them are Sergio (Gory) Moya de la Cruz, Faustina Guerrero Cabrera, Nelson Rafael Marmolejos Gil of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM). A fifth legislator is Héctor Darío Féliz Féliz, of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), also investigated by the Attorney General’s Office for laundering money from drug trafficking.
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Noticias SIN
N Digital
Diario Libre
17 October 2023