Buyers of Puerto Rican kingpin’s auctioned watches face probe

Santo Domingo. – The Internal Taxes Agency (DGII) Tuesday confirmed that it investigates the people who bought the watches seized from Puerto Rican kingpin Jose Figueroa Agosto in Dominican Republic, to determine the origin of the money they used to buy them in auction.

A DGII source quoted by eldia.com.do said none of the buyers of the luxury watches are registered as paying an Income Tax (ISR), and will be therefore notified to file their financial statement regarding the undeclared income. “They must declare the sources of the income they obtained to be able to make purchases for the amounts they paid for the watches.”

Buyers

Some “questioned” people bought 27 of Figueroa’s 28 watches in seized from Figueroa, in an auction held Thursday, among them the lawyer Miledys Aybar, who together with her father formed part of the defense team of Eddy Brito, sentenced to 12 years in the money laundering case.

Aybar, 27, bought four watches, among them three Audemars Pigueg and a Roger Dubus Just Friends 26/28, for US$49,306.

Another “questioned” buyer is Marcos Enmanuel Ferrando, who bought 11 watches, and who in posted photos of a Ferrari and a Porsche in Facebook, allegedly the same ones seized from Figueroa in 2009.

Annul sales

Executive Branch Antinarcotics adviser Marino (Vincho) Vinicio Castillo yesterday said the Anti-laundering Committee committed a “unacceptable omission” during the auction, because it allowed one of Figueroa’s “representatives” in the bidding.

In that regard, the official said the Administrative Arbitration Court should suspend the process and to start a probe on each of the bidders. “The ideal thing would be to declare the auction void and investigate.”