Listin Diario reports that Plaza Lama has reached an agreement with Customs on unpaid pending taxes. Customs Director Miguel Cocco accused the company of having evading RD$250 million in taxes on imported merchandise. On Friday, Cocco told the press that if the company did not pay RD$252 million by Monday, their operations would be closed down. Customs was demanding double the taxes that the company would have paid if it had imported the goods in a legal manner.
Plaza Lama is represented by Abel Rodriguez del Orbe, who has held the post of attorney general in the previous Fernandez administration.
The customs department, through its own lawyer Jose Antonio Columna, issued a statement on 15 October that referred to irrefutable proof that Plaza Lama had engaged in a massive customs fraud by bringing in hundreds of appliances accompanied by phony documents or in ways legally considered as contraband or counterfeit.
The Lama case brought about an interesting confrontation between District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez and the Customs Director, when Hernandez accused Cocco of violating the legal procedures code by taking steps to intervene in the store’s operations.