One of Medina’s closest collaborators again in major scandal

Santo Domingo.- The former head of the scandal-fraught State Works Supervisory Engineers Office (OISOE), Miguel Pimentel Kareh, was charged with over US$50.0 million fraud Wed. at the National District Office of the Prosecutor, by his brother Víctor.

The scandals at OISOE, including the suicide death of one of its contractors, forced president Danilo Medina to fire Miguel Pimentel -one of his closest collaborators- in Sept. 2015

Victor Pimentel’s lawyer Tomás Castro filed the complaint which requests the arrest of Miguel Pimentel Kareh and his alleged partners, Frank Reynaldo Fermín (former OISOE legal consultant), and Public Works Ministry legal consultant Selma Méndez Risk,  and payment of RD$600.0 million in damages.

According to the complaint, Miguel Pimentel was Víctor’s partner in the Caribbean Village and Resort company, with a 40% stake (20% each).  The firm marketed and operated hotels, along with other partners, including Pimentel Kareh’s former father-in-law, Juan Tomás Mejía.

It emerged that the former OISOE director on a trip abroad with his former father-in-law, was made aware that the company drew a group of foreign shareholders who would invest nearly US$500.0 million in it, and that after hiding that situation from his brother, convinced him to sell him his shares for US$200,000, and then sold them to Occidental Hotels & Resort, which entered as a majority stakeholder, for US$50.0 million, which acquired the shares in Caribbean Village.