The Public Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday it is confident that the Court of Appeals of San Pedro de Macorís will uphold the 18 months of preventive detention imposed on two women who were part of a network linked to a real estate scam and money laundering.
The hearing to consider the appeal filed by defendants Rocío Rodríguez de Moya and Marisol Nova Nolasco has been postponed until July 11 at the request of the plaintiffs, so that the court can notify the more than 170 victims who have filed complaints with the Public Prosecutor's Office, according to a press release from the Attorney General's Office.
The prosecutors from the Specialized Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prosecutor's Office and the La Romana Prosecutor's Office handling the case said they expect the San Pedro de Macorís Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Glass Gutiérrez, to declare the appeal inadmissible and uphold the pretrial detention order against the defendants.
The 18-month preventive detention was imposed on February 25 by Judge Margarita Cristo Cristo, of the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of La Romana, to guarantee the presence of the accused in all acts of the judicial process.
The Public Prosecutor's Office carried out a series of raids on February 7, during which Marisol Nova Nolasco and Rocío del Alba Rodríguez de Moya were arrested, as well as the accused Yves Alexandre Giroux, who was also given 18 months of preventive detention.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) was able to locate in Colombia one of the ringleaders of the real estate scam, identified as Loany Ortiz Nova, who will be extradited to the Dominican Republic.
Regarding the case, the file indicates that the criminal organization created the company Novasco Real Estate, SRL, for the purpose of committing the crime and subsequently acquired the franchise of RE/MAX, a well-known multinational. However, it was all a sham designed to recruit clients who became victims of the network.
The defendants promoted four real estate projects: Romana Victoriana Residences, Bávaro Victoriana Residences, Infinity View, and River Hill, which were scheduled for completion in August 2023. They received over $18 million in payments for the apartments. Subsequently, they closed their offices and refused to return the money after concealing it through a money laundering scheme.
Court prosecutor Ramona Nova Cabrera, from the Specialized Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prosecutor's Office, and Reina Yaniris Rodríguez Cedeño, head prosecutor of La Romana, expressed confidence "that the decision of the Permanent Attention Court that imposed preventive detention and declared the complexity of the investigation will be confirmed.".
The Public Ministry's investigative and litigation team is made up of prosecutors Bienvenido Florentino, Claudio Cordero, Manuel Castro, José Manuel Calzado and Pedro Medina Quezada.
Photo: External source.
