By Edilberto F Mendez
Correspondent in the Dominican Republic
The above summaries concern senior officials of the current and previous governments who are alleged to have embezzled millions of pesos from the country’s public funds.
They all have their specificity and importance due to the level of corruption, as it is not common to see a former Attorney General of the Republic, brothers of a former President, members of the Accounts Chamber and senior military commanders in the dock.
But that’s the way it is, they’re in custody in some cases (less and less) and at home in others, and the reality is that a group of people who should have been honest have their hands filled with money and other people’s has resources.
The Medusa case that has jailed former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez seems to have no end; The hearing was rescheduled to February 2023 at the request of the defendant’s attorneys, who requested a rescheduling to see all records.
Last July, prosecutors presented the formal indictment for this case, which involved 41 defendants, 22 companies and more than 400 witnesses, with a file of more than 12,000 pages and files of 60,000.
Rodríguez is emerging as the suspected ringleader of a corruption network that has handled more than a billion pesos ($18 million) in bribes, so it’s likely when the investigation begins how far that process will go.
ANTIPOPUS, THE CORAL, OPERATION 13…
And what to say about the Antipulpo: It involves former President Danilo Medina’s brother, Alexis, and former Vice President of the Patrimonial Fund of Reformed Companies, Carmen Magalys, among others.
They are of course accompanied by 27 individuals and 21 companies accused of corruption and money laundering.
The files show that the main defendant, Alexis Medina, set up a corporate network and carried out alleged fraudulent maneuvers in connection with officials through his influence based on his status as the brother of the then head of state.
Last August, the court decided to transfer his situation from pre-trial detention to house arrest because the defendant exceeded the 18-month prison term without a trial beginning.
The defendants are charged with criminal association, fraud against the state, embezzlement, bribery, use of forged documents, unauthorized financing of political campaigns, influence trading, money laundering, coalition of officials, forgery and omission in affidavit, illicit enrichment and subterfuge, among other offenses.
Being two in one, the Corals have as their main suspects generals and colonels from various bodies of the Dominican security forces, some of those of former President Medina.
In those two cases, prosecutors indicted 30 individuals and 18 legal entities for alleged administrative corruption and alleged fraud of the Dominican State by more than four billion pesos ($72 million).
Here, in addition to the National Council for Children and Adolescents, as the saying goes, the Presidential Security Corps, the specialized tourist security, is connected for eat and take away.
Finally, and that nothing is missing, we have the so-called Operation 13, a scam that took place in the National Lottery in which the protagonist, the former administrator of this institution, Luis Dicent, is involved, and eight other suspects are accompanying him.
According to the allegations, the fraud involved more than 500 million pesos ($9 million) during a draw on May 1, 2021, in which the winning number for first prize was 13, hence the name of the case.
SLOWNESS, ACHILLES HEEL
We are in the presence of a group of processes that, while moving in one way or another in 2022, predate 2023 and will transcend 2023. Without a doubt, the slowness of judicial affairs and, moreover, is the Achilles’ heel of the Dominican judiciary. All this is difficult to influence.
This slowness in the processes and the great concern of the population in this regard was recently recognized in the annual balance of citizen participation.
And although they highlighted the progress made in the fight against corruption in the country with the appointment of independent and well-prepared individuals to head the Attorney General’s Office, they expressed the slowdown in these processes.
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