SANTO DOMINGO. - The Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, designer Oscar de la Renta and the founder of the Punta Cana Group, Theodore Kheel, as well as the consortium’s president Frank Rainieri, were sued for RD$500 million, over the ownership of almost one square kilometer of land.

In a report published today in the local newspaper Listin Diario, it cites Oscar Hernandez Rosario and Lincoln Hernandez Peguero, of the law firm Hernandez and Hernandez, who are suing for damages in the Civil and Commercial Chamber of the National District’s First Circuit Court.

The attorneys charge that the Punta Cana Group and its main directors, after transferring 900,000 square meters of lands to them and obtaining their deed of ownership, began carrying out actions outside the law, in an attempt to disavow the signed contracts.

In name of the plaintiffs, attorney Abel Rodriguez del Orbe said that the suit seeks to repair the damages that his clients have suffered for more than three years.

Rodriguez del Orbe provided information on the litigation against the leading personalities of the Punta Cana Group in the Hoy television program, on Channel 11.

He said that the 900,000 meters with which the professional fees were paid was a garbage dump which acquired, according to his words, “great value” after the construction of the CAP-Cana tourism complex began in its proximity.

In a press conference held in the offices of Hernandez & Hernandez, Hernandez Peguero stated that after rejecting offers from Frank Rainieri’s to reacquire the land, the hotelier ordered the Punta Cana Group’s security personnel to invade the land in two occasions, which according to his statements has resulted in separate accusations of trespassing.

In the suit it is established that the Hernandez firm, after having recovered 60,000 tareas (almost 2 km. square) that squatters occupied illegally for more than 30 years, reaching agreements with many of them, the Punta Cana Group transferred 1,425 tareas of lands to them, whose location was specified in a contract, and a surveyor and the Land Court drew up the surveys, but then the tourism group started legal actions without foundations, imprudent and of bad faith, causing them serious damages.

The empowered court will set a date for a hearing, in which the plaintiffs will require the presence of the executives of the Punta Cana Group being sued.