SANTO DOMINGO. – Gonzalo Castillo, former Minister of Public Works, and Claudio Silver Peña, former Director of the National Cadastre, are among those arrested by the Public Prosecutor's Office over the weekend in the new corruption scandal involving former officials of the past government of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).
Calamar is the name of the operation that the Public Ministry launched on Saturday night and Sunday morning, through which more than 40 raids have been carried out and at least 19 names of people detained in the new case being carried out by the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPCA) have been revealed.
In the operation last weekend, former Finance Minister Donald Guerrero, Presidential administrator José Ramón Peralta, and reformist leader Angel Lockward were also arrested.
The raids took place in the National District, Santo Domingo province, San Pedro de Macorís, and La Romana. According to a statement from the Public Prosecutor's Office, 40 prosecutors, dozens of technicians from different investigative units, 300 members of the National Police, and a large administrative support team participated.
Among those arrested to be presented for a request for coercive measures, the Public Prosecutor's Office indicates that there are also the former Comptroller General of the Republic, Daniel Omar Caamaño; the former director of the State Sugar Council (CEA), Luis Miguel Piccirilo and the former directors of Casinos and Gambling, Oscar Chalas Guerrero and Julián Omar Fernández.
Also arrested were Roberto Santiago Moquete, Agustín Mejía Ávila, Emil Dávila Fernández, Marcial Reyes, Alejandro Constanzo, Yahaira Brito Encarnación and Ana Linda Fernández.
Later, lawyer Ángel Lockward and Mr. Miguel David Hernández went to the Prosecutor's Office, where they were arrested and taken to the preventive detention center at the Palace of Justice.
About Gonzalo Castillo
Gonzalo Castillo Terrero was born on November 20, 1960, in Barahona and is a businessman, owner of Helidosa Aviation Group, a company that provides air ambulance, airplane, and helicopter services. He was the presidential candidate for the PLD in the 2020 elections.
From a young age, he joined the PLD and in 2002 was part of the campaign team of former Vice President Jaime David Fernández. In 2005, he worked on Danilo Medina's presidential campaign team in preparation for the 2007 primaries.
Between 2012 and 2019, he served as Minister of Public Works and Communications. On July 30, 2019, he announced his intention to run for president and lost the 2020 election in the first round.
Claudio Silver Peña
Claudio Silver Peña is a civil engineer and was appointed on September 15, 2014 as head of the General Directorate of National Cadastre, a position he held until 2020 when the Danilo Medina administration ended.
Investigation
In August 2022, Judge Kenya Romero, coordinator of the investigating courts, authorized the PEPCA to obtain financial reports regarding an open investigation against Guerrero, other former officials and private individuals, on irregular and illegal public debt processes, to embezzle the State's assets.
According to prosecutors, fraudulent maneuvers were carried out with the objective of embezzling RD$19,653,871,513.80 from the public treasury for transnational agreements, and they managed to embezzle RD$17,300,642,051.07 through land expropriation payments in protected areas and the simulation of land purchases and sales under the modality of administrative debts.
The former director of the National Cadastre appears in the investigation as part of the network that carried out the fraudulent maneuvers through which they allegedly defrauded the Dominican State.
The document states that the corruption network also used the simulation of land purchases and sales under the modality of administrative debt, which had as a common element credit assignment contracts for more than RD$10.5 billion, "to people of complete trust who sometimes used shell companies, dissolving them immediately after obtaining their objective," which constitutes the criminal type of embezzlement.
The report from the Comptroller's Anti-Fraud Unit states that in six months, the Ministry of Finance issued 30 payments totaling approximately RD$10,993,120,387.60, while the National Treasury only certified RD$5,636,093,821.14, for a difference of RD$6,431,438,750.41, "which indicates that it made direct payments in violation of Law 10-07.".
The preliminary charges brought by the Public Prosecutor's Office against those accused in Operation Calamar include criminal association, embezzlement, collusion of officials, falsification of public and private documents, bribery and illicit campaign financing on an unprecedented scale, money laundering, among others.
