Corruption in the DR

Operation Anti PULPO (octopus)  reported in  Dominican Today

Santo Domingo.- Operation Anti-octopus, the first of the major anti-corruption investigations carried out under Miriam Germán’s administration, will face its first litmus test starting Monday, because after the accusation is filed, a judge will evaluate the evidence and determine whether they are sufficient to send Juan Alexis Medina and the other defendants to trial.

The statements issued by the head of the Office of Anticorruption (Pepca), Wilson Camacho, who said that new people and criminal acts will be included in this judicial process.

Camacho revealed that as they deepened in the investigations, they found new complaints and the lines of investigation that were presented during the coercion measure increased.

Hopefully this is the beginning of changes with the fight with corruption in the goverment, real one.   Its been none real fight for decades, instaured at the point that people here before thoght that corruption was something normal.  With the time our minds has been changing and we finally started to realize is something bad for every body.  Its a good start and I know that more people will be joining the corruption because is so hard to cut in one day that cancer we have.

And the corruption here is  systemic, the system is built on this model of payoffs and paybacks!    From   millions of dollars to a few cans of paint!  From start to finish!

planner wrote:

And the corruption here is  systemic, the system is built on this model of payoffs and paybacks!    From   millions of dollars to a few cans of paint!  From start to finish!

Installed very long ago.

I've never been in DR.  I worked in government many years executing official contracts.  Corruption is everywhere, of many kinds. Government has been designed to limit the severity of corruption, but it is like palliative medicine for an incurable disease that rots our souls.  Government cannot solve it and giving too much power to government can make it much worse, as resources are limited.  Perverse incentives are often unintended consequences of good intentions.

Interesting perspective.    I agree that it is  everywhere and it does need to be controlled. I dont think we will ever stop it fully.   Getting rid of the worst of it  is definitely a goal!

Corruption has been a business for many in public service in DR and the country has consistently had very low rankings for corruption in public service.

It is interesting to note how the ranking has changed over the years using transparency.org figures:

2000 rank 87     2000 to 2004 PRD government of Meija now PRM
2004 rank 87     2004 to 2012 PLD government of Leonel now PF
2008 rank 102
2012 rank 118  2012 to 2020 PLD government of Danilo
2016 rank 120
2020 rank 137

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/dom

DR is right down at the bottom and not surprisingly with all the corruption cases now being prosecuted. But the figures suggest the big rot started after 2004 even though before that time it wasn't perfect.

The problem of having a thread on corruption in DR is that everytime you open a digital newspaper - every day - there are more irregularities being reported.

Today we have reporting on futher accounting irrgularities involving the brother of the ex President Medina who is part of the Anti Pulpo corruption case and the defeated PLD presidential candidate Gonzalo Castillo. Also reported are irregularities on the bidding pricess for school lunches. And a dispute going on for the failure to audit the Bar Association.

It is never ending these days. Irregular practices are being investigated everywhere.

My intent was to keep it in one place and highlight the biggest and most outlandish.

Some of the others that are jaw dropping and or so ridiculous should be included!

Cases comming out now are recenta, so imagine what more is hidden eaitting to be doscovered.

Absolutely!  It will continue to be discovered and brought to light!

Chamber of Accounts shakes and uncovers more corruption

https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2 … corrupcion

The more they dig and audit public bodies the more they find.

A pot of pus

https://listindiario.com/editorial/2021 … lla-de-pus

The Chamber of Accounts, submerged in an inexplicable climate of torpor and silence for several years, has just uncovered a real and smelly pot of pus when auditing the administrative operations of different official institutions.

More than five audits published in the last days reflect the seriousness of the violations to the due procedures of management of public resources that implied the distraction of billions of pesos.

If the manipulation of the procedures to justify irregular administrative operations is serious, just as sinful has been the contemplative, sleepy and frankly irresponsible attitude of those who kept those audits hostage.

The audits released to the public had been initiated but not completed in a timely and vital time, which undermines much of the crucial responsibility of this controlling power to ensure the correct use of public funds.

It is recalled that, after a surprise incursion by the prosecutors of the Office of the Special Prosecutor for the Persecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPCA) at the headquarters of the Chamber of Accounts, the public prosecutor denounced that the audits were "made up" there.

Very serious imputation if one takes into account that the mission of that Chamber, which has had new members for a few months, is to monitor and enforce the rules of the neat and transparent administration of State funds.

With the findings documented in the recently disclosed audits, it is then necessary for the courts to deepen the investigations and proceed with the punitive measures against those responsible for these monumental and scandalous scams.

Wow.  Fuel for the police.  Hospital renovations, construction etc.  Road asphalt supplies and repairs.   

All linked to the president, his family and presidential hopeful last election.

Did I sum that up about right?

What is interesting is that only after the changes to the Accounts Chamber personnel a few months ago by this government, these irregularities being discovered.

This is not surprising at all.  It's should be absolutely disconnected from political affiliation

Ortiz Bosch asked the Attorney General's Office to extend recent audits of the CC to linked officials

https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2 … vinculados

The Director of Government Ethics and Integrity, Milagros Ortiz Bosch requested that the investigations undertaken by the Public Ministry on the audits carried out by the Chamber of Accounts of the Dominican Republic in various government agencies be extended to the public officials who permitted or authorized the alleged corrupt actions detected.

In a communication addressed to the Attorney General of the Republic, Miriam Germán, Ortiz Bosch considered that the country is facing "the historic opportunity" to build a modern and effective public administration system.

“It is in these attentions that with due respect to the investigation that may be carried out or that is being carried out to the referred audits, that we allow ourselves to request that they be extended to public servants who have allowed, violating the established procedures, to authorize corrupt actions that were woven in the institutions that are the object of the reports of the benchmark audits ”, she points out in the letter

The former vice president of the republic specifically referred to the audit reports carried out by the Chamber of Accounts (CCRD) to the Office of Supervisory Engineers of State Works, regarding the processes carried out for the equipping of Hospitals in relation to the Domedical company Supply SRL

As well as the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance regarding the emergency process for the repair and general maintenance of hospital centers; and to the National Police, for the adjudication, execution, dispatch, inspection and payment drafts for fuel supply.

“As you are aware, article 6 numeral 29 of Decree no. 486-12 created by the General Directorate of Government Ethics and Integrity, gives this institution the function of following up on those audits of the Chamber of Accounts that have been submitted to the Public Ministry, in addition to ensuring that the recommendations established therein are implemented " , said the director of DIGEIG in her communication.

Ortiz Bosch motivates her proposal in the need and opportunity to strengthen the best public administration practices in the Dominican Republic.

When making the communication sent to the Attorney General's Office known to the press, the director of the DIGEIG says that she estimates that the amounts involved in the three indicated cases of corruption, according to the data recorded in the audit reports of the Chamber of Accounts, were irregular expenses that could have increased the debt of the Dominican Republic and violated budgetary controls without taking care of the quality of spending, a fundamental principle of the Public Administration. It also considers that it is necessary to establish the obligation and consequences of non-compliance with these procedures without distinguishing between past and future.

The more they look the more they will find one suspects.

Now this as reported on Dominican Today, Ministry of Education

Santo Domingo.- An unjustified emergency procedure for RD$108.1 million (US$2.0 million) and advance payments without manufacturer certification, are two of the multiple irregularities detected by the Accounts Chamber in a purchases made by the Ministry of Education from 2018 to 2020.

The Minerd audit found that the institution paid “excessive amounts” without documentation that justifies those disbursements, in favor of the company Suim Suplidores Institucionales Mendez, SRL to allegedly supply equipment to the Hogar Escuela Nuevo Amanecer.

The Chamber of Accounts revealed that the supplier company generated profits of RD$90,235,130, and that goods not included in the institution’s annual purchase plan were acquired for RD$108,092,842.

Some sectors are getting anxious by the anti corruption drive.....

President of the Chamber of Accounts responds to the PLD and says he is not persecuting anyone

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … NG30369895

The president of the Chamber of Accounts, Janel Andrés Ramírez Sánchez, assured that this entity is not there to persecute anyone, but to exercise the supervisory role and "make public what is public."

Ramírez Sánchez responded to the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), an organization that accused the Chamber of Accounts of persecuting and discrediting the administration of Danilo Medina and of carrying out a media trial with the publication of preliminary reports of audits and special investigations " without exhausting the procedures established by law ”.

Regarding this last aspect, the accountant stated that all the results of the audit should be made public since that is its “reason for being”.

He said that the Public Ministry is responsible for determining how compromising the audit reports are, because the function of the CC is "to carry out technical, independent, objective work based on the rules that govern the exercise of the profession."

He stated that it is up to another establishment "to decide whether these indications really constitute sufficient elements for the courts to decide."

Ramírez Sánchez explained that the Chamber of Accounts has a process for the issuance of audits that includes carrying out field work and generating an interim report, which is made known to whoever directs an institution at the moment and those who directed the period in the one conducting the investigation.

Once those reports are delivered, the law allows a period of ten days for officials to send a reply. These become an integral part of the reports.

The titular member of the supervisory body believes that members of the press need training since, according to him, they often misinform and echo the headlines without going to the report.

"The Dominican Republic needs investment in training (...), including the press, because many times it misinforms, it echoes the headlines without going to the report," he said.

Yeni Berenice denounces a campaign to discredit the fight against corruption

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … JG30368771

The director of Persecution of the Public Ministry, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, denounced this Wednesday that officials subjected to corruption, their defenses and others have started a defamatory campaign against the Attorney General's Office, the Chamber of Accounts and the national judiciary to discredit the fight against impunity .

The deputy prosecutor assured that those who attack have begun to see that "the climate of historical impunity to which they became accustomed no longer exists" and, consequently, "they have unleashed an organized campaign against those institutions and bodies such as the Chamber of Accounts, the judiciary, the Public Ministry ”.

"That climate will not continue to insist because it is not possible. These people distracted billions that when the Antipulpo accusation comes out, they will realize how bribes were received and all that climate of corruption and impunity that impacted citizen security through the Police and the main hospitals in the country, ”said Yeni Berenice Reynoso ............



Cartoon courtesy of El Dia

Good article from Listin Diario this morning:

Shield state assets to prevent corruption

https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2 … corrupcion

On the same August 16, 2020, the government of Luis Abinader launched an initiative to prosecute administrative corruption that has led to jail a group of former civil servants, civilians and military officers, from the past government, and all have open proceedings in the courts. .

The fight against corruption not only has the support of the majority of citizens, but it was the flag that released millions of Dominicans to the streets between January 2017 and much of the following year.

While the judges weigh in on the quality of the evidence that the public ministry says that it has against its persecuted, new scandals, now of officials of the Abinader government, occur frequently and the ruler's response has been the cancellation of the noted. The panorama can be summed up by saying that the government is pursuing corruption, but based on institutional gaps and control gaps, they continue to handle operations outside the law that involve state assets.

If the current government's response is only to persecute those of the past and remove those of the present from office, the fight against corruption is lost because there are no real deterrents or effectiveness in the control of public goods.

Persecution and prevention
President Abinader and his team have the opportunity to stimulate the prosecution of corruption that has been a disgrace for this country, but also begin to take practical steps to better protect the State's assets and control its use so that it is not devoured by individuals.

I know that the president called for a dialogue to promote 12 institutional reforms seeking to improve state controls, but before, as now, "a practical step is worth more than a hundred programs."

I have been writing about the need to put an end to the disorder that has been undermining the institutional and moral foundations of the Dominican people for decades, and the defense of state patrimony is a cornerstone of that battle.

Ending disorder implies adopting specific decisions that mark new directions for the efficiency of the State and actions that benefit citizens.

The state patrimony today is dispersed and not effectively quantified, which prevents the state itself from knowing how much, what and where are its movable and immovable property, as well as other assets that constitute a voluminous treasure that cannot be fully used for public benefit, although there are scandalous stories of waste and piñata.

President Abinader knows that this is the case and that is why he took the initiative to create the Liquidation Commission for State Bodies that are inoperable or are duplications, giving way to mergers to have more solid and modern institutions that better adapt to the new concepts of the Public Administration.

The CEA, Corde and Bienes Nacionales
The most important case is the merger of the State Sugar Council (CEA), owner of millions of tasks of land for agriculture, forestry and real estate; the Dominican Corporation of State Companies (Corde) and the General Directorate of National Assets to make it a single entity.

To look at these three state institutions, then turn them into one, is to observe an immense conglomerate of public goods that must be well protected, documented, registered, open to full transparency in all its operations and used so that it multiplies and is not ruined, as has happened so far.

But dissolving the CEA and liquidating Corde so that its assets go to National Assets seems to be an incomplete measure because that volume of properties and assets in general should be directly under the operational and legal protection of a ministry, not a general direction.

If the Abinader government decides to convert national assets into a ministry, with more reason than in the case of Housing, the State and the citizen can win.

The State wins because the institution that manages and manages the national patrimony would have the authority, technical staff, technology and sufficient operational capacity to defend the assets of the entire Dominican people and respond in time to the procedures of citizens or companies that want and must to put in order possessions acquired with the institutions in dissolution.

There are already fruits
I have just seen a long interview that the director of National Assets, César Cedeño, gave to El Caribe and it shows how in 15 months of his tenure, he has recovered more than 100,000 tasks from the CEA that were irregularly in the hands of individuals .

If that has been possible with all the limitations of authority, resources and qualified personnel that the CEA and National Assets still have, what would happen if that work was carried out by the Ministry of State Properties?

State assets must not only be defended from those who lurk to try to loot them, but also quantify them meter by meter, rod by rod and vehicle by vehicle, among others, so that they are instruments of development, of promoting productive employment and not parasitic, for transparent negotiations, for models of productive, agro-industrial or tourist units.

An example that illustrates

During the government of Antonio Guzmán (1978-1982), the Ministry of Agriculture - led by former President Hipólito Mejía - captured thousands of tasks from the State in Las Tablas, Baní, and established there a great project of raising and promoting of goats that for years was successful.

Forty years later, that great plain of semi-dry forest shrubs still has the conditions to be recovered, put into production and turn it into a laboratory equipped with technology for the improvement of races, for the promotion of associative breeding throughout the south of the country and to qualify the diet and reduce the price of goat meat.

Why is it in neglect? Because here there is no ministry that manages correctly and takes advantage of the state patrimony, but entities without power or resources so that that treasure deteriorates and then the opportune ones come to turn it first into carrion and then into very profitable gleaming businesses. Past and present corruption must be prosecuted, but we can spend years chasing new corrupt people if the sinister windows through which the hounds penetrate are not closed, to take what corresponds to all ... Even if they are denounced, persecuted, raided, arrested! and bring to justice!

Having an independant public prosecution service to me seems a necessity for any democracy and for DR the only way they can continue to work to get rid the of a climate of corruption.

In my home country the Crown Prosecution Service is independant of politics and the management is not tied to elections. So to take the appointment of officials out of the election cycle and every 6 years seems a good move for DR.

The Abinader government is seeking changes to the Constitution which includes changes to make the the public prosecution service independant of politics.

But not suprisingly there is kick back from past politicians in power.

Incredible. you wrote all the information, for us. You're really nice... Thanks.

There has been a lot of discussions and reporting this past week about the proposed changes to the Constitution by Luis Abinader. Opposition parties have stated categorically that they will not support changes.

The main proposed change is to make the prosecution service independent from politics.

This article today in Listin Diario sums up the situation and perhaps why the opposition parties don't want change:

Senator PRM says the people "will demand in the streets" the constitutional reform for an independent MP

https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2 … ependiente

The senator for the province of Santo Domingo, Antonio Taveras Guzmán, stated that the people will be in charge of asking for the "transparent" Constitutional reform in the streets, as well as "pointing out" those legislators who prevent it.

"People are increasingly demanding transparency, they are demanding institutionality, they are demanding new actions from politicians, so I think that the reforms that we are going to give people are going to ask for it and they are going to ask for it in the street", " Taveras argued.

Likewise, he said that the population "is going to press and point out the congressmen for whom they voted and will question them because they do not want reforms . "

After being questioned about whether the ruling party will be willing to negotiate with the opposition after they withdraw from the discussions, since they do not have enough legislators to be able to approve a reform, Taveras stated that those who withdrew from the dialogue "are the themselves" who modified the Magna Carta for political purposes, in addition to creating a Constitution in "their image and likeness" to control justice and other regulatory bodies.

"This constitutional change that we are proposing is to have an independent Public Ministry, to clean up justice, so that a prosecutor never again has to be imprisoned for being a pawn of politicians," exclaimed the legislator.

In the middle of the week, the representatives of the parties of the Dominican Liberation (PLD), Dominican Revolutionary (PRD) and Force of the People (FP) withdrew from the discussions on the Constitutional reform and established that "under no circumstances" would they approve a change in the Magna Carta.

Meanwhile, last Thursday, President Luis Abinader explained that those political leaders (former presidents Leonel Fernández and Danilo Medina) are "afraid" since they did modify it "to justify their presidential aspirations" but stressed that these "are not their intentions" and that he is willing to meet with them to guarantee it.

The proposal of the Executive Branch and the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) has as its main goal the modification of the attributions of the Attorney General of the Republic, beginning by changing the name to "Attorney General", in addition to defining that the candidates to compose the Board Central Electoral (JCE) and the high courts do not appear on the register of any political party in the five years prior to their election and unify the presidential and congressional elections with the municipal ones, so that they are held on the third Sunday of May of the year electoral.

Im Dominican, and I can tell the statements that Leonel is telling, is a totally lie, the PM never was independient, in all goverments Presidents  has been picking up some body from their Parties to take care of them untill now with Abinader that did something that no one of the past presidents did.    The only independence that the Public Ministery has is monetary.   For Sure if the rules to select that position do not change we are in the risk to have the same that we had in the past.

The breaking story in DR at the present is that private investigators hired by the Dominican baseball player David Ortiz, who was shot at a bar in Av Venezuela in Santo Domingo a few years ago, was ordered by the drug lord El Abusador who was captured in Colombia a couple of month ago and was apparently linked to powerful people in DR. it appears the former Public Prosecutor who is already in preventative custody for a large corruption case, may have been involved in a cover up trying to protect government officials.

Jean Alain would have protected César "El Abusador" in the David Ortiz case because "many people in the government were going to fall"

https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2 … iba-a-caer
David Ortiz revealed that Jean Alain Rodríguez called him at his Weston home “two months after the shooting and asked him to make a public statement supporting the mistaken identity theory.”

The private investigation ordered by former Major League Baseball player David Ortiz, after being shot in 2019, has revealed an alleged concealment of evidence by former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez and the National Police regarding the reality of this event.

This investigation carried out by the former Boston Police Commissioner, Ed Davis, and released this Saturday, reveals that the drug trafficker César Emilio Peralta alias César el Abusador, had Ortiz killed without being very clear about the reasons for this fact. .

According to the information, Ortiz said he hired Davis in part because he was concerned about the “integrity of the Dominican investigation under Jean Alain Rodríguez . ”

“To be honest, when you live in a country where justice is corrupted, you want to believe (what the government claims) but you will also disagree, and that was what was happening at the time,” Ortiz told Davis.

David Ortiz revealed that Jean Alain Rodríguez called him at his Weston home “two months after the shooting and asked him to make a public statement supporting the mistaken identity theory.”

According to the investigation, there are witnesses to this call, since the former player was accompanied by Davis, Prado, baseball agent Fernan Cuza and Baerlein.

"We understood that the attorney general was trying to make (Peralta's possible participation) disappear because if Peralta fell, many people in the government were going to fall ," Prado told the Boston newspaper.

Although the investigation carried out by the former Boston Police Commissioner assures that César Emilio Peralta was the person who tried to assassinate the former baseball player, the precise reason why Peralta may have felt "so disrespected" as to order his death remains unclear. .

The investigation carried out by Ed Davis could not find reasons why César Emilio Peralta wanted to assassinate the ex-player.

David Ortiz was shot in 2019, at the Dial bar, in Santo Domingo Este. He was treated as an emergency at the Abel González Clinic and was later transferred to Boston, in the United States, where several surgeries were performed until he fully recovered.

The investigation by the Dominican authorities revealed "that the shot was a mistake and that the person they wanted to assassinate was Sixto David Fernández" who was with David Ortiz at the time.

According to the Attorney General's Office and the National Police, Víctor Hugo, Sixto David's cousin, ordered his assassination due to problems they had in the past.

Things just keep getting uncovered.  What a web of corruption!

They should make sure the government officials who were a part of the cover up because they were on the take should get adjoining cells with their friend the drug king pin they can sit there for 20 years together and look at each other every day and talk about all their money that went to the lawyers that couldn’t keep them out of jail  and how broke $ they are now

I like how you think!

The David Ortiz attempted murder and possible/probable cover up is beginning to look like being biggest corruption scandal yet in DR.

David Ortiz demands the Dominican Public Ministry take into account private investigation

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … al/1720397

.......Joe Baerlein, communications advisor to Ortiz, added that “ David Ortiz appreciates the thoroughness of Ed David's report and hopes that there will be more legal action in the Dominican Republic and in the United States courts to finally clarify and answer why this happened to David.”

David was also very critical of the Dominican authorities. “ To be honest, when you live in a country where justice is corrupted, you want to believe what the government claims, but at the same time you don't agree with what they tell you” ..........


And commentators are saying the former prosecutor was not in this alone.....

Emmanuel Esquea Guerrero
Jurist reiterates if Jean Alain covered up the attack on David Ortiz, he did not do it alone

https://noticiassin.com/pais/jurista-re … lo-1247713

........"I also say that if he did it, he did not do it alone, then if it would be possible to deduce who is the chief of the attorney, the chief of the attorney is the president of the Republic, it would be necessary to go deeper and it would be necessary to investigate the president, ¿ Why not?" said the lawyer.........

To which the PLD most likely presidential hopeful, Margarita the former vuce President  is trying to deflect criticism suggesting it is to quell the news of the theft from the Superate programme which could have started with the previous government and so the current head of Superate hits back hard........

Reaction
Gloria Reyes to Margarita: in this government, scandals are confronted, which they did not do in the past

https://noticiassin.com/pais/gloria-rey … do-1247734

Cedeño affirmed that the authorities used the new version of the attack on David Ortiz to "remove the scandal of the 400 million Supérate that they have stolen from the families of Progresando con Solidaridad.

"The director of the  Supérate program , Gloria Reyes, reacted to recent statements by former Vice President Margarita Cedeño that the government is creating a distraction with the new version of David Ortiz's attack to divert attention from the millionaire fraud in social aid.

Through Twitter, Reyes published that the "statements of Margarita Cedeño attributing the @BostonGlobe to complicity with @PresidenciaRD motivate me to make it clear that in #Get Over Yourself and this government, scandals and mafias are confronted, persecuted and brought to justice, which that they did not do in the past", reaction that has created hundreds of interactions in the networks.

Fascinating stuff and perhaps more heads are going to roll.....

It sure is fascinating. As non voters we sit back and watch!  At least I do! Get out the popcorn it's getting interesting!

This story is continuing to be the main news in DR and the independent report is going to be reviewed by the public prosecutor.

The news is also big in USA where David Ortiz is well known and has reached mainstream media worldwide too.

This attention will not be good news for the previous public prosecutor, nor El Abusador nor any high profile people with hidden links.

This article in Diario Libre today indicates that for just 4 of the current corruption cases, the government and it's lawyers are seeking to recover US$750 million.

The Dominican State claims RD$40 billion for corruption cases

Public Heritage Recovery Team works on four cases

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … on/1723721

The Dominican State seeks to recover about 40 billion pesos in the administrative corruption processes that it is currently carrying out in Justice, against former public officials .

Through the Public Patrimony Recovery Team, a group of lawyers with a special delegation granted by the Presidency of the Republic through decree 22-21, seeks to recover goods, values ​​and assets owned by the State in the hands of third parties due to illegitimate appropriation or under any title or operating means.

The ERPP is headed by Jorge Luis Polanco Rodríguez and four team coordinators: Claudia Álvarez Troncoso, Manuel Conde Cabrera, Rafael Rivas Solano and Fernando P. Henríquez, together with 27 lawyers, who seek to recover funds that have been diverted and who are in justice in the Coral and Coral 5G , Antipulpo , Medusa and 13 operations .

In the Antipulpo case, the State seeks the restitution and compensation of the sum of 23,903,465,542.00 pesos as fair compensation for the damages suffered. The main defendant is Juan Alexis Medina.

For the Coral and Coral 5G cases, 6,000,000,000.00 pesos are claimed for the illicit.

The accused are Generals Juan Carlos Torres Robiou, Julio Camilo de los Santos Viola and Boanerges Reyes Batista, among others.

In the Medusa case, the State is pursuing the recovery of the sum of 9,200,000,000.00 pesos and the main defendant is former attorney Jean Alain Rodríguez. Also for the Operation 13 case, more than 600,000,000.00 pesos are claimed for the fraud against the National Lottery.

Now this will be interesting!  They are hunting down the assets of everyone connected.

It's harder reading the USA news

- @Roryzion