Santo Domingo, DR.- The Fourth Court of Instruction of the National District approved this Thursday the criterion of opportunity requested by the Public Ministry in favor of Victor Matias Encarnacion Montero, former technical director of the liquidated Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (OISOE).
In the signed agreement, the former official admitted his participation in the events for which he was investigated, especially coalition of officials, with the aim of defrauding the Dominican State, through payments to engineers authorized by the then Minister of Finance, Angel Donald Guerrero Ortiz.
As well as the falsification of data on volumetry, in order to prepare cubications with altered dates in the budgets, to justify the payment of the same, as well as the recognition of debts and additional work, as part of the corruption network that defrauded the Dominican State with more than RD$21,000 million, dismantled by means of the Operation Squid.
The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPCA) refers to article 370, paragraph 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which empowers it to make agreements with defendants and offer them the criterion of opportunity, in exchange for plea of guilty and collaboration in the investigation of the punishable offense.
In the motivations, presented to Judge Altagracia Rámirez, the accusing body establishes that the effective collaboration of the former official has been of utmost importance for the investigation of this process, since it has allowed to clarify how the Corruption network in the OISOE and the Treasury.
The acts committed by Matías Encarnación involve the coalition of officials, prevarication, embezzlement, extortion, incompatibility with their status, association of criminals, fraud against the State, prescription of corruption and illicit enrichment, as well as crimes related to money laundering and terrorist financing.
Postpone knowledge to other agreements
The knowledge of the approval of the opportunity criterion in favor of Ramón Emilio Jiménez Collie “Mimilo”, Fernando Crisostomo Herrera, José Arturo Ureña Pérez, Bolívar Antonio Ventura Rodríguez, Natalia Cesarina Beltré Torres and Belkis Antonia Tejeda and the DIBEFE SRL Group, was separated from the process and postponed until August 22, after the plaintiffs filed new objections.
About the criminal holding
The criminal association orchestrated by the then Minister of Finance, Donald Guerrero; the Administrative Minister of the Presidency, José Ramón Peralta and the Minister Public Works and Communications, Gonzalo Castillo, defrauded the Dominican State with more than RD$21,000 million, through irregular payments for expropriations of land declared of public utility, recognition of administrative debts and bribes for the 2020 political campaign.
The writing of some 3,662 pages, with 46 people accused, 34 of them were individuals and 12 were legal entities,” he details, using various State institutions, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Comptroller General, the General Directorate of National Assets, the State Sugar Council, the Reserve Bank, and the General Directorate of Budget, to defraud and embezzle the Dominican State.
Among those accused in the corruption scheme are also Daniel Omar Caamaño, former Comptroller General of the Republic; Luis Miguel Pichirilo, former director of the State Sugar Council (CEA), and Claudio Silver Peña, former director of the National Cadastre. Also, Oscar Chalas Guerrero and Julián Omar Fernández, former directors of Casinos and Games of Chance.
