SANTO DOMINGO.-the judge of Seventh Investigative Court of the National District, Deiby Timoteo Peguero, authorized this Wednesday the embargo of 445 million pesos in favor of the State and in the case of corruption followed by Juan Alexis Medina Sánchez, Carmen Magalys Medina Sánchez, Fernando Rosa Rosa, Lorenzo Wilfredo Hidalgo Núñez and others.
Through the Public Assets Recovery Team (ERPP), empowered by the Executive Branch to recover public assets in the hands of individuals, the Dominican State considers that a new chapter has been opened in the fight against administrative corruption because for the first time Once in judicial processes of this nature, a decision has been issued that seizes assets and economic resources to guarantee compensation in favor of the State.
The judge said that regardless of whether there is an economic guarantee of 60 million or 20 million provided as a measure of coercion to some defendants, as well as the seizure of assets by the Public Ministry for the hypothetical confiscation, the real coercion has a specific purpose: to retain the funds for the hypothetical compensation of the State as a civil actor.
“We see this case as a historic process in the fight against corruption and impunity in the Dominican Republic. Where a new path is opened, where the Dominican State not only requires an exemplary penalty for those who violate the law against public property, but in addition to that, it seeks compensation for the State as a consequence of the illegal actions that were committed to the detriment of all Dominicans and Dominican women”, said Jorge López Hilario on behalf of the ERPP.
“For the first time in a criminal case for corruption, the judge accepted our factual theory that an economic group was formed and ordered real coercion measures to guarantee the eventual compensation agreed by the judge in the background,” he pointed out.
López Hilario clarified that these amounts indicated by the judge are not those that correspond to the compensation requested by the State, but the authorization to block the measure.
It is recalled that the State requests compensation for more than 23 billion pesos for the illegal acts in which those involved in the corruption network that defrauded the Dominican State have incurred.
In his decision, the judge admitted the Dominican State as a constituted civil party, represented by the Public Assets Recovery Team (ERPP) through Decree no. 22-21, recognizing his status as a victim and the power he has to intervene in the process in such condition.
This is the first decision in the country that, in matters of corruption, accepts the petition for the declaration of an economic group, which was made by the Dominican State.
The magistrate pointed out that the companies and the defendants, according to the evidence provided, operated under the control of the same person or group of people under the coordination and subordination of the main defendant in the Juan Alexis Medina Sánchez case, with a clear common objective .
