The industrial sector represents one of the major fraud problems for the electrical distributors known as the EDEs, who are now talking lawsuits in order to collect sums that ascend into the millions of pesos. According to Ruben Bichara, EdeNorte and EdeSur have 47 clients that owe a combined RD$154 million, and if some payment plan is not reached with these clients the distributors will go to court and expose the names of those businesses as “deadbeats.” Bichara said that the Edes have given these companies two weeks to mull things over. Speaking to Hoy newspaper, Bichara also said that once this time has elapsed, they would proceed to take legal action. He pointed out that industrial fraud is most worrisome because this is the sector that consumes the most electricity. He complained of how in one case EdeSur cut an industry’s electricity for non-payment and a judge issued a sentence that fined the electricity company RD$3,000 per day of non-service. Bichara, the official spokesperson for the two distributors that are once again under governmental control, said that the distributors would no longer tolerate these sorts of judicial decisions regarding service and non-payment. Speaking about other areas that have been problematic for the distributors since their takeover by the government in 2003, Bichara announced that all of the accumulated debts incurred by government institutions had been paid in full for 2002 and 2003. He did add that several municipal governments owed the entities RD$500 million and that the case was being handled in such a way as to cause the least amount of problems to the municipalities.