Senior official admits pocketing juicy ‘pension’

Santo Domingo.- National Housing Bank (BNV) director Federico Antún Batlle (Quiqui) on Friday admitted having received RD$12.1 million from its pension plan in 2013, but denied wrongdoing.

The official’s revelation fuels Antun’s minority PRSC party colleague Humberto Salazar’s accusation that RD$266 million were embezzled from the BNV’s pension plan.

"We’re not in a mood for polemics or much less respond to people who manipulate information for the sole purpose of harming a well-earned and demonstrated image," Antún in a statement by the BNV.

Antun admitted having received the RD$12.1 million in 2012 from the liquidation of a juicy pension plan, despite being in the post for just two years.

According to documents provided by Salazar to outlet elcaribe.com.do, around 54 senior BNV officials and employees distributed amongst themselves RD$266 million from the liquidated pension plan despite having contributed from RD$ 500,000 to RD$ 800,000.

Antun, interviewed on Zol 106FM said Salazar’s allegation, “seeks only to slander,” and that all the measures adopted in the BNV complied with the law.