The Italian link in the Punta Catalina power plant US$1.9B graft case

Santo Domingo.- Several anticorruption and  human rights organizations on Monday said they invited Milan, Italy prosecutor, Isidoro Palma, to come to the country to continue the investigation on the participation of the Italian group Maire Tecnimont in the Punta Catalina power plant graft case.

In a press conference, organizations spokesman Enrique de León said that in mid-April, Milan’s Prosecutor opened an investigation into Tecnimont’s role in the cost allegedly ballooned to US$1.9 billion in the Punta Catalina project.

He said during that investigation the Italian financial police raided Tecnimont’s offices in Rome and Milan, seizing equipment and documents related to the case.

“Tecnimont has built plants similar to Punta Catalina, but the one here has cost the Dominican State three times what it has cost in countries like Chile and Brazil. So, the prosecutor Palma is asking the executives why it costs a quantity there and it costs three times here. If so, there is an evasion to the Italian treasury,” said de León at the Attorney General’s Office.