Former Dominican ambassador in Paris, businessman Luis Alvarez Renta who was removed from his diplomatic post by President Hip?lito Mej?a after being named in the Baninter case, flew into Santo Domingo?s Herrera airport on a private plane from Miami yesterday, and handed himself over to the authorities. He arrived at District Attorney Maximo Aristy Caraballo?s offices at 2 pm, and was questioned during the afternoon. He will be questioned further today in matters relating to the Baninter scandal.
Governor of the Central Bank Jose Lois Malkum, in his press conference announcing the Baninter embezzlement, said:
?The report furthermore reveals that overdrafts and loans totaling RD$3.83 billion were erased from the company Bank Invest, presided and managed by Luis Alvarez Renta.?
In a full page advertisement published today in several dailies he states that he has come to face justice in order to clear his name against the accusations against him, which he described as a “monstrous campaign? of public defamation”. He mentions that media such as Le Monde, Reuters and the Miami Herald have carried the stories that he says replicate information and false rumors that have appeared in the Dominican media.
Alvarez Renta claims he would not have faced extradition from the US, and that he has returned “voluntarily, without pressure of any sort, because I am innocent and I am not afraid of healthy and impartial justice”.
In the advertisement, Alvarez Renta denies that he has a penal case pending in Dominican courts, was the intellectual author of violations to the Telecommunication Law and the Law 36 on arms, and that there is a criminal case against him for aggression to his wife, among other accusations he addresses.
He adds that he is not mentioned in any of the Baninter case documents. Alvarez Renta presented documents which he says prove that he sold Bank Invest in 2001 and resigned in 2002: “I was never a Baninter executive or official”, so he could never have carried out any of the fraudulent activities he is being accused of.
Judge Eduardo S?nchez Ort?z has started proceedings against an undisclosed number of unnamed individuals in the Baninter case, it is reported. A source told Diario Libre that as many as 10 people are on his list.