Grupo Financiero Nacional affiliate company clients who suffered the confiscation or loss of revenues when that financial body collapsed in the second half of last year have taken the company to court. The private group is demanding a settlement of US$40 million. The case was presented to Judge Doris Pujols Ortiz, who will preside over the case, by lawyers Virgilio Bello Rosa (a former Attorney General in the Mejia administration), Licelotte Marte de Barrios (a PRSC deputy), Jorge Lora Castillo and Gustavo Biaggi Pumarol.
The defendants in the suit have named chief bank shareholders or executives Maximo Pellerano, Manuel Arturo Pellerano, Hector Castro Noboa and Raisa Gil de Fondeur in the case. Companies that are being levied the charges of embezzlement of funds, asset laundering and associating with known felons and delinquents, include: Grupo Bancredito, AFP Siembra, ARS Humano, B. Preetzmenn Aggerholm, Bancredit Cayman, Bancredito Panama, CNS Corporation, Creditcard Internacional, GFN Comunicacion, GFN Capital Corporation, Tricom, En el Punto Dominicana, Fomento Corporativo, Oleander Holding, Magna Compania de Seguros, Mundo Gas America Dominicana, Omnimedia, Reaseguradora Nacional, Segna, Seguros La Antillana, TCN Dominicana (Telecable), Terelum, Transglobal de Seguros, Zona Franca San Isidro, Efe Haina, Infosolutions and Tricom Latinoamericana.
The banking division of the Grupo Financiero Nacional was sold to the E. Leon Jimenes group and subsequently became Banco Leon. Banco Leon is now being served notice for alleged unfulfilment of payment to clients.
Meanwhile, in a related news story, defendants of Manuel Arturo Pellerano, lawyers Pedro Catrain and Eduardo Jorge Prats, criticized the decision of the Monetary Board not to honor the contractual commitments assumed by the Central Bank before the takeover. In a press release, they say the decision is a flagrant violation of the agreement signed by the Central Bank with the former and new owners of Bancredito. The lawyers say the Central Bank has acted contrary to the precedent set by the restitution given to depositors of Baninter, the banking institution that collapsed last year.