Prosecutor slams ruling releases RD$100.0M ’embezzlers’ in Customs

Santo Domingo.- National District Attorney Yeni Berenice Reynoso, again questioned a court ruling in the case of the over RD$100.0 million embezzled at Customs in 2010, involving the sons of officials and lawmakers, and whose latest decision, handed down this week, acquits three defendants and convicts three others.

Reynoso tweeted that the sentence “has serious legal defects” because, “the complainant’s withdrawal is irrelevant to a criminal sanction in a public action case.”

She said “the accomplices are condemned and the authors are released” in the corruption case.

Reynoso, who was Santiago’s Prosecutor when the scandal broke, had railed against Appellate Court prosecutor Vielka Calderón, for having requested bond for three of the defendants: Miguel de Jesus Lazala, Herald Estévez and Adalberto Rosa.

It emerged in 2010 that Lazala is the son of Petra Canela, a former govt. official and senior leader of the ruling party, PLD, whereas Adalberto Rosa, is the son of former PLD deputy with the same name and a former official.