donald guerreroformer Minister of Finance (2016-2020) and one of the detainees under the Operation Squid this Sunday morning, he owns four dealers of cars in Puerto Rico, according to an independent media outlet on the island, which also reports a complaint about a cash laundering scheme and corruption between the two islands.
“The investigation that we have been carrying out uninterruptedly is confirmed In Black and White with Sandra since February 2021 on the money laundering and corruption scheme that links the two countries,” said independent journalist Sandra Rodríguez Cotto, after reporting the arrest of Guerrero, José Ramón Peralta and Gonzalo Castillo, the latter who served as minister of Public Works before launching himself as a presidential candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in 2019.
According to the journalist’s investigation, the corruption in the Dominican Republic it spilled over into Puerto Rico, since most of the “capital that was stolen from the Dominican people was laundered in Puerto Rico in legal businesses.”
Demand for fraud
According to the Puerto Rican newspaper, Guerrero is the owner of the dealers Autocentro Toyota, Autocentro Chrysler Autocentro Nissan and Autogermana, the latter being the reason for a demand for fraud presented against the former official by his partner.
In March 2021, Guerrero was sued for 21.8 million dollars in the San Juan Court of First Instance, for fraud and for illegally appropriating said dealer. The lawsuit was filed by businessman Eduardo Pellerano Nadal, founder of the business for importing and selling luxury vehicles BMW and Mini Cooper.
“Since 2021 we have been denouncing that the local press did not cover this scandalous news that shook the bowels of political and economic power in the Dominican Republic and directly touched Puerto Rico, due to fear of losing announcements from the automotive industry,” the journalist highlights. .
The case also had lawsuits in the Dominican Republic. In November 2022, the businessman filed a complaint against Guerrero for the alleged falsification of data in his sworn statement of assets, after his departure from the Government in 2020, before the specialized Anti-Money Laundering and Prosecution of Administrative Corruption offices.
The complaint filed by Pellerano Nadal details that the former official would have “hidden millionaire capital” in the Autogermana company, which, according to the accusing document, “would be a possible corporate vehicle for the concealment of unjustified capital on the occasion of the functions (of Guerrero ) as Minister of Finance in the years 2016-2020”.
In response, Guerrero filed a demand for “damages” against the businessman, in which he indicates that he would have “acted in bad faith” harming Guerrero and his family, with “a series of actions since 2021 lacking evidence and foundations”, contrary to the applicable legal regulations and jurisprudential criteria in force and established by the Supreme Court of Justice.
“To date, with this and other actions, Pellerano would be avoiding resolving the debt that exceeds the figure of US$10MM that it maintains against the Autogermana company in Puerto Rico, of which both are partners,” the former official states in the lawsuit. .
In the demand In Puerto Rico, Pellerano Nadal alleges that Guerrero committed fraud, and illegally appropriated the vehicle import and sale business in Puerto Rico to remove it from the business that he himself had founded in San Juan.
Former federal prosecutor María Domínguez and her firm DRM Law act as the legal representatives of donald guerrero in Puerto Rico, says the independent media.
Guerrero and other former officials of the governments of Danilo Medina were arrested at dawn this Sunday for a case that could be linked to a network that defrauded the Dominican State for more than 19,000 million pesos, through the assignment of credit to claim alleged public debts for expropriation of land.
The Attorney General’s Office began interrogations against the former Minister of Finance in 2021.
#Arrested #Operation #Squid #dealers
