The Public Ministry launched Operation Chameleon this Wednesday with which it arrested seven people who, in the next few hours, will be requested a coercive measure, accused of belonging to a corruption and organized crime network dedicated to embezzlement, fraud against the State, counterfeiting, coalition of officials, smuggling, illicit trade, sabotage, terrorism against critical infrastructure, through high technology and identity theft.
Among those detained is the businessman José Ángel Gómez Canaán, better known as Jochy Gomezwho is one of the owners of Transcore Latamthe company investigated by Pepca, at the request of the Public Procurement Directorate, which detected signs of criminal offenses due to alleged corruption, falsification of documents and defects in the contracting process that allowed it to be awarded for more than RD$1.3 billion in 2023 .
However, the supervisory body revealed that in May 2022, he acquired the TRANSCORE.COM.DO domain and usurped the identity of German citizen Jörg Brinkmeyer to fraudulently create Transcore Latam SRL.
“Later, using fake emails, he asked a lawyer to register the company in the Dominican Republic and in July 2022, they registered Transcore Latam SRL with the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce,” the document indicates.
Within the investigation, it was shown that neither Brinkmeyer nor Michael Mauritz, representative of TransCore LP in the US, had a relationship with this company or those involved.
After “fraudulently” registering the company Transcore Latam SRL, the accused Pedro Vinicio Padovani Báez resigned from his position as manager of the INTRANT Traffic Light Control Center on June 30, 2022 and began working directly with José Ángel Gómez Canaán (Jochy ).
The documentation also indicates that this decision coincided with changes in the management of INTRANT, since on August 15, 2022, Hugo Marino Leopoldo Beras Goico Ramírez was appointed as executive director, replacing Rafael Arias.
«With the arrival of Hugo Beras, the rigged project was temporarily suspended to include the new authorities in the conspiracy. Beras appointed Frank Rafael Atilano Díaz Warden as office coordinator and his representative on the purchasing committee of the INTRANTwhich also included Juan Francisco Álvarez Carbuccia, Erzsike Giselle Bobadilla Zimmermann, Martha Morillo De León, and Filias Bencosme Pérez,” he noted.
More about the operation
During the Operation, deployed on the night of October 2, 2024, residences and companies were raided in the National District, Santo Domingo Este, San Cristóbal and Punta Cana. Approximately 170 members of the National Police, Units participated in these operations. Special and more than 30 specialized prosecutors against organized crime.
During the raids, hundreds of pieces of evidence were seized that confirm the accusations of the Public Ministry, which has described them as one of the “Most successful of its operations against organized crime, to the point that the processing of the evidence in some of them lasted for more than 12 hours.”
Among the facts that are the subject of the accusation are the fraudulent contract for the modernization of the traffic light system of greater Santo Domingo; the illegal contract with the Ministry of Defense and the company Aurix, dated June 23, 2020, used to usurp functions of the intelligence, security and defense organizations of the State and the sabotage that occurred against the traffic light network in the month of August.
