NGO asks probe of Dominicans in Swiss bank ‘dirty money’ scandal

Santo Domingo.- Justice and Transparency Foundation (FJT) president Trajano Potentini on Tuesday asked Dominican authorities to investigate the dirty money scandal at the Swiss bank HSBC, where an appreciable number of Dominican citizens reportedly have accounts.

the FJT’s request comes in the heels of the scandal unleashed by reports by Le Monde and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which released the list of secret accounts of governments officials, tycoons and sports personalities dating back to 2009.

Of the accounts attributed to the HSBC bank based in Geneva, Switzerland, 76 are Dominicans, totaling US$34.3 million, of which the highest is US$8.0 million, registered to a Dominican citizen.

The civil society organization asked the Justice Ministry to conduct a full investigation to dispel doubts on whether politicians, people linked to drug trafficking and/or government corruption figure among the bank accounts being probed.

In a statement, Potentini also noted that international criminals could have acquired Dominican nationality by fraud.