Trial against former official ’embezzled’ US$20.8M+ starts Tuesday
A. Holquin is free on bail.
Santo Domingo.- The Office of the Anticorruption Prosecutor (PEPCA) on Monday unsealed the indictment in a National District court against National Aqueducts Agency (INAPA) former director Alberto Holguín, and contractor Sobeida Ogando Perdomo, charged with embezzling over RD$1.0 billion (US$20.8 million).
First Panel Court presiding judge Gisselle Mendez set the start of the trial for Tuesday, to hear testimony and receive evidence on the indictment , which accuses the official and Ogando of violating the laws on Financial Statement, and on forgery.
Investigative journalist Nuria Piera uncovered the alleged embezzlement in 2015 in five reports showing documents which Holguín had purportedly signed RD$904.0 million-worth of “emergency contracts” with 38 companies in November 2012, to build aqueducts in communities which in fact weren’t under an emergency situation, violating the Public Procurement Law.