Ex senators: Opposition party leader in US$1.0M ‘piece of scandal’

Santo Domingo.- Eight former senators who wrote the draft for the Monetary and Financial Law passed in 2002 asked State-owned Reservas bank CEO Enrique Ramirez to avert a "financial pirouette" they affirm aims to pay off a loan to the company Galerias Comerciales Mundo Mall, S.A., owned by opposition PRD party president Miguel Vargas.

In the letter dated Feb. 3 and received on Monday, former PRD senators Andrés Bautista, Cesar Matias, Vicente Castillo, Enrique López, Bernardo Alemán, Jesús Vásquez, Ivan Rondon and Dagoberto Rodriguez say that on December 8, "the loan granted violated the Monetary and Financial Law, such as: Control of Risk, and information stipulated in articles A, B and C.”

"There’s now an attempt at a financial pirouette to pay off that debt and interests, trying to get the Reservas bank to enter into a transaction in which Vargas signs over the building located at Lope de Vega Av. No. 94, Ensanche Naco, Santo Domingo worth 11.5 million dollars to the Public Works Ministry," despite that the property was acquired for $4 million dollars.”

According to the former senators, "that difference could be a piece of scandal."