Dominican Republic US$84.0M ‘Octopus’ fraud case goes digital

Santo Domingo.- National District judge in charge of hearing the preliminary stage or trial of the evidence in the “Octopus” US$84 million fraud case, Deiby Timoteo Peguero Jiménez, ordered the Justice Ministry to set up a space with computers in Najayo prison so that the defendants and their lawyers can review the 103,000-page case file, including accusations and evidence.

The evidence presented by the prosecutors occupies approximately 194 gigabytes of memory, clarified the head of the Specialized Prosecution Office for Administrative Corruption (Pepca), Wilson Camacho, who also said that they aren’t opposed to defendants having this facility.

“The Public Ministry is not opposed (to the accused knowing the evidence) because that is their right and it is evident that the Public Ministry has deposited a hurricane of evidence in this process. A category five hurricane and it is proportional that the defense has the opportunity to review this torrent,” Camacho said as he left the Ciudad Nueva Courthouse.

The Public Ministry must, by order of the judge, set up a space in the jail for lawyers and defendants to meet to review the charges.