Ex prosecutor files criminal charges against ex President, close aides

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Francisco Domínguez on Tuesday received an accusation of corruption in a deficit of RD$187.0 billion against ex president Leonel Fernandez, former Public Works minister Victor Diaz Rua, and ex State Works Engineers Supervisory Office ( OISOE) director and current Senator, Felix Bautista.

The accusation filed by Guillermo Moreno, ex National District Prosecutor during Fernandez’s first term, accuses the former president, Díaz Rúa and Bautista, among others, whom the complaint says should be identified in the course of the investigation, of the RD$187 billion fiscal deficit, revealed by Economy minister Temistocles Montas on October 4, just weeks after president Danilo Medina took office.

The complaint claims there’s evidence that shows Fernandez, as President, admitted using taxpayers money to pay for the so called "mini-payrolls" as well as more than 40 billion pesos in Medina’s campaign.

It also accuses the three of ballooning payrolls and using taxpayers money for private trips abroad, relating to Fernandez’s Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (FUNGLODE).

It also says Diaz Rua and Bautista “schemed to embezzle and overvalue construction works” from January to August, which practically exhausted the 2012 budget of both agencies.