Dominican Republic rags to riches Senator faces jail

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Domínguez on Monday asked the Supreme Court to incarcerate senator Amable Aristy, charged with corruption during his eight year tenure as head of the Dominican Municipal League (LMD).

Castro is one of the country’s most veteran politicians and considered a “chieftain” in his native La Altagracia province, where he rose from bank clerk to riches as a lawmaker and official of various administrations.

In the request addressed to the high court, Dominguez asks the justices to designate an instruction judge to schedule a hearing to submit as evidence Accounts Chamber audit disclosed September 6.

The audit found, among other alleged irregularities, that during Aristy’s administration, the LMD disbursed RD$75.3 million for food rations to be donated, with no evidence to confirm the beneficiaries, because the products were not shipped directly from supplier warehouses to where the operations were carried out.

The petition comes just days after Dominguez announced the launch of an investigation based on the Accounts Chamber audit of the LMD, from January 1 to December 31, 2006.

The official added that the probe also included the most recent audit, from January 1 to December 31, 2009, "without limit to extend this investigation to other years of budget execution, including the alleged “disappearance” of RD$250.0 million from the LMD’s retirement plan.