Ex president Fernandez again charged with graft

Santo Domingo.- Minority Al-País party president Guillermo Moreno on Thursday filed money laundering charges in the National District Office of the Prosecutor, against former president Leonel Fernandez.

Moreno’s complaint says Fernandez used the President of the country and of the Global Democracy and Development Foundation (Funglode) to control considerable amounts of taxpayers’ money to his advantage. "That’s a type of enrichment which violates the Constitution."

Prior to filing the charges the politician said Fernandez used his position to get as much as RD$1.0 million in kickbacks on public works contracts.

Moreno said there the kickbacks were as high as RD$21 million and that amount reached RD$41 million in just seven days.

The former presidential candidate added that substantial government donations were also received for Haiti’s reconstruction, in which senator Felix Bautista, Fernandez’s close collaborator, played an important role.

A previous complaint filed November 2012 by Moreno against Fernandez, Bautista and former Public Works minister Víctor Díaz, blaming them for the fiscal del deficit of RD$183.0 billon, was discarded by the Justice Ministry.