Post by Sapphire Capital on Aug 5, 2008 0:22:58 GMT 4
SANTO DOMINGO.- AUgust 4, 2008
Ex president Hipólito Mejía today distanced his administration and himself from any guilt in the US$2.5 billion Baninter bank fraud case, and called accusations he says president Leonel Fernandez voices against him since the scandal broke 2003 as “unfounded and politicking.”
The ex chief executive said he’s satisfied with the conviction of those implicated in the fraud, who must pay 64 billion pesos in fines to the Central Bank.
In a second letter he sent to Fernandez and published today on the Baninter case, Mejia mentions the National District Court of Appeals’ guilty verdict for forgery and concealment, among other crimes, and experts of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and foreign embassies, whom he said supported his government’s decisions to deal with the fraud, “because it avoided the collapse of the national financial system and protected more than 700,000 depositors.”
“The decision of Dominican justice, complemented by that group of totally independent opinions, shows that the accusation by you and some of your economic team officials against my government is totally unfounded and politicking” the ex- president tells Fernandez.
“It was possible to be conclude from the analysis of those experts that the banking crisis was the result of a fraud that began in 1989 and exploded in 2003 when the intervention of the government that I presided takes place,” the ex chief executive said, adding that as soon as his government noticed the insolvency of the three banks which later colapsed, “we intervened to protect the depositors and the financial system.”
Mejía said the Central Bank could confirm whether 19 savings and loans associations, 3 multi-banks and several pension funds, retirement plans, as well as foundations, non-government organizations and churches, had substantial deposits in the collapsed banks.
“Your very own Foundation, Mr. President, the Global Foundation, Democracy and Development, were among the depositors in one of the broken banks, with two checking accounts, a savings account and 64 financial certificates that totaled RD$119,132,136.98,” Mejia says in the letter.
Ex president Hipólito Mejía today distanced his administration and himself from any guilt in the US$2.5 billion Baninter bank fraud case, and called accusations he says president Leonel Fernandez voices against him since the scandal broke 2003 as “unfounded and politicking.”
The ex chief executive said he’s satisfied with the conviction of those implicated in the fraud, who must pay 64 billion pesos in fines to the Central Bank.
In a second letter he sent to Fernandez and published today on the Baninter case, Mejia mentions the National District Court of Appeals’ guilty verdict for forgery and concealment, among other crimes, and experts of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and foreign embassies, whom he said supported his government’s decisions to deal with the fraud, “because it avoided the collapse of the national financial system and protected more than 700,000 depositors.”
“The decision of Dominican justice, complemented by that group of totally independent opinions, shows that the accusation by you and some of your economic team officials against my government is totally unfounded and politicking” the ex- president tells Fernandez.
“It was possible to be conclude from the analysis of those experts that the banking crisis was the result of a fraud that began in 1989 and exploded in 2003 when the intervention of the government that I presided takes place,” the ex chief executive said, adding that as soon as his government noticed the insolvency of the three banks which later colapsed, “we intervened to protect the depositors and the financial system.”
Mejía said the Central Bank could confirm whether 19 savings and loans associations, 3 multi-banks and several pension funds, retirement plans, as well as foundations, non-government organizations and churches, had substantial deposits in the collapsed banks.
“Your very own Foundation, Mr. President, the Global Foundation, Democracy and Development, were among the depositors in one of the broken banks, with two checking accounts, a savings account and 64 financial certificates that totaled RD$119,132,136.98,” Mejia says in the letter.