Banco Intercontinental

Sentence and criticism

On October 21, 2007, Báez Figueroa was sentenced by a three-judge panel to 10 years in prison. Additionally, he was ordered to pay restitution and damages totaling RD$63 billion. The laundering charges were excluded, but the other suspected mastermind of the fraud, Luis Alvarez Renta, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering. Marcos Báez Cocco, ex-vice president of the bank, was also found guilty and sentenced to 8 years.

The court dismissed the accusations against two other defendants: former BANINTER executive Vivian Lubrano and Jesús M. Troncoso, the secretary of the BANINTER Board of Directors, for lack of evidence.

The sentence has been widely criticized for its severe contradictions, but more specifically because it has been alleged that the judges were pressed by "the powers that be." Noted journalist Miguel Guerrero wrote in his column of the daily El Caribe that the defrauders of BANINTER have been protected "by a dark combination of political, economic, mediatic, and ecclesiastical powers" and that the sentence was a "mamotreto." In fact, Guerrero went to the extent of saying that everything was fixed beforehand, and the defendants and their lawyers knew it, as did those representing the Central Bank.

Court of Appeals and Supreme Court decisions

In February 2008, the case went to the Court of Appeals of Santo Domingo, and the court upheld the sentence against Báez Figueroa, Báez Cocco, and Alvarez Renta. The decision that had favored Vivian Lubrano was reverted, and she was sentenced to five years in prison and RD$18 billion in damages. Charges against Troncoso Ferrua were definitely dropped.

In July 2008, the Dominican Supreme Court confirmed the decision against the defendants.

Nevertheless, Lubrano allegedly fell into a "deep depression" and suffered from "panic attacks," and she never went to prison. After much debate, President Leonel Fernández gave her a full pardon on December 22, 2008.