Panel Court Rules in Major Corruption Trial over Coral and Coral 5G
Three judges of the First Panel Court of the National District announced on Monday the ruling in proceedings against former high-ranking military and civilian officials for the misappropriation of more than 4,500 million pesos.
Panel Court Rules in Major Corruption Trial over Coral and Coral 5G
On Monday, 15 June, at 3:00 p.m., the First Panel Court of the National District delivered judgment in one of the broadest and most closely followed proceedings against corruption in recent times in the Dominican Republic.
Judges Gisselle Méndez, Tania Yunes and Jissel Naranjo were those who determined the fate of dozens of former officials from the armed forces, the police and the civil sector, whom the public prosecutor's office alleges mounted an organisation to embezzle public funds between 2012 and 2020.
The prosecution contends that the amount misappropriated exceeds four thousand five hundred million Dominican pesos, extracted from entities such as the Presidential Security Corps and the Specialised Tourism Security Corps. The scheme was dismantled in April 2021, when prosecutors raided properties and arrested several alleged members.
The former head of Cusep, retired major general Adán Benoni Cáceres Silvestre, is considered by the Public Ministry as the principal ringleader. Other prominent names among those prosecuted include general Juan Carlos Torres Robiou, who commanded Cestur; colonel Rafael Núñez de Aza, in charge of Cusep's finances; generals Julio Camilo de los Santos Viola and Boanerges Reyes Batista; naval captain Franklin Antonio Mata Flores; and the nun Rossy Maybelline Guzmán Sánchez, nicknamed "Pastor Rossy".
The structure allegedly operated through phantom salaries, simulated contracts, irregular management of state resources, creation of shell companies and purchase of assets with funds of dubious origin. The offences attributed to them range from the formation of criminal gangs among public servants to money laundering, passing through fraud against the state, perversion of the course of justice, illicit enrichment and the use of straw men.
The Pepca, a specialised unit tasked with pursuing governmental corruption, demanded sentences of twenty years' imprisonment for the accused of highest rank, including Cáceres Silvestre, Torres Robiou, De los Santos Viola, Núñez de Aza, Reyes Batista and Mata Flores. For the remainder of those involved, the requests ranged from fifteen, ten and five years' imprisonment, depending on their level of involvement.
The judicial ruling could also determine the confiscation of assets, the imposition of economic sanctions and the dissolution of commercial firms linked to the scheme.
_Source: Acento_
Source: Google News DO — Crime