Judge orders release of first major bank fraud convict

SANTO DOMINGO.- A National District judge ordered the immediate release of the banker Leonel Almonte, convicted to 15 years in prison in the fraudulent collapse of the bank Banco Universal.

4th Criminal Court judge Awilda Reyes ruled for the restraining order filed by the banker against Justice minister Francisco Dominguez and prisons Director Mario Acosta, claiming contempt of court for defying San Cristóbal Sentencing judge José Ignacio Medrano’s decision to allow Almonte’s house arrest.

The judge had ordered the Justice Ministry and Prisons to pay a 5,000 peso fine for each day they fail to comply with the ruling.

Almonte, the main convict in the country’s first major bank collapse, will spend the nine years left in his sentence at his upscale Piantini sector residence.