NewsWhore
09-07-2007, 03:21 PM
Defense attorneys for the accused in the Baninter bank fraud case continue to argue that the Mejia government's monetary authorities discriminated against Baninter, and are the ones who should be blamed for the bank's collapse and the ensuing economic crisis. Lawyer Juarez Castillo Seman stated, "In this court we have to clarify who is responsible for the immense damage inflicted on the country, who destroyed the immense value of Baninter's assets, who used the people's money unlawfully to pay back all the depositors and liquidated Baninter without accountability," stated Castillo Seman. He said that evidence presented by the defendants seeks "to prove that the multi-million peso damage caused to the country was not the work of Ramon Baez Figueroa but of the criminal authorities that took control of Baninter on 24 March 2003 and sabotaged the bank's proposed merger with Banco del Progreso, removed the auditors that that bank had sent, all for the embarrassing political and monetary advantage of a group, of a band of wrongdoers," he stated.
Yesterday, the defense presented Julio Ortega Tous who said that the version of the RD$55 billion fraud was like a work of detective fiction by the Mejia government's economic advisor Andy Dauhajre, and that there is no audit that can prove this version. Ortega Tous, former leader of the Fernandez government's economic team, said that a bank's operational loss is not fraud. "If this were the case then all the governors of the Central Bank should be in the dock because by 2002, before the Baninter crisis, the Central Bank's losses exceeded RD$150 billion," stated Ortega Tous.
The defense has maintained that Hipolito Mejia's government and its bad economic policies were what led to the 2003 banking crisis, beginning in 2002 with the case of Baninter against former colonel Pedro Julio Goico for the so-called Pepe Card, a credit card issued by Baninter to the former President's security chief for presidential expenditures abroad.
The defendants are also alleging that the monetary authorities violated the law by paying depositors beyond the ceiling established by law, including returns of RD$551 million to the Baninter treasurer.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)
Yesterday, the defense presented Julio Ortega Tous who said that the version of the RD$55 billion fraud was like a work of detective fiction by the Mejia government's economic advisor Andy Dauhajre, and that there is no audit that can prove this version. Ortega Tous, former leader of the Fernandez government's economic team, said that a bank's operational loss is not fraud. "If this were the case then all the governors of the Central Bank should be in the dock because by 2002, before the Baninter crisis, the Central Bank's losses exceeded RD$150 billion," stated Ortega Tous.
The defense has maintained that Hipolito Mejia's government and its bad economic policies were what led to the 2003 banking crisis, beginning in 2002 with the case of Baninter against former colonel Pedro Julio Goico for the so-called Pepe Card, a credit card issued by Baninter to the former President's security chief for presidential expenditures abroad.
The defendants are also alleging that the monetary authorities violated the law by paying depositors beyond the ceiling established by law, including returns of RD$551 million to the Baninter treasurer.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)