US embassy cable - 03SANTODOMINGO4736

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 004736 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR INR/AA, WHA/CAR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: DR, OTRA, PINR, SNAR 
SUBJECT: CARIBBEAN CONFERENCE: RAINIERI RESPONSE AND 
DISGUST WITH CORRUPTION (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC) 
 
REF: A) STATE 245508 B) SANTO DOMINGO 4548 C) SANTO 
 
     DOMINGO 4680 
 
1. (SBU) Dominican businessman Frank Rainieri told EcoPol 
counselor on Sept 4 that he is interested and potentially 
available to participate in the CSIS conference on the 
Caribbean.  He has noted this in his agenda and awaits 
further information.  Having surveyed the agenda, he asked 
about the format of his participation; EcoPol counselor 
suggested that given the time available, he would probably be 
asked for a 10-15 minute presentation, with availability to 
questions toward the end of the session. 
 
2.  (SBU) Rainieri said that he was pleased with the Aug 29 
piece in the NY Times on his enterprise (World Business: "A 
Different Standard of Living: Dominican Resort is Community 
Project for Developers") but that it wouldn't get any play in 
the Dominican Republic.  (The article reports his retort to 
President Mejia's teasing: "Excuse me, but we pay millions in 
taxes and not one cent is invested here.  The ones who do not 
pay taxes are your friends.  Here, political friendships are 
the source of privilege.")  He said that he had taken a copy 
to that afternoon's meeting of the Monetary Board, where he 
is one of twelve members.  Mejia's daughter saw him passing 
it to a friend, got up and came around the table with a 
inconsequential comment, clearly checking to identify the 
document.  "They've read it in the Palace and they don't like 
it," he commented. "We are a little more exposed than we like 
-- my wife appeared in a seven-page article in Hola! this 
week" (Hola is a celebrity magazine published in Spain, 
France, and the UK). 
 
3.  (SBU)  Rainieri says that he has been carrying around his 
letter of resignation from the Monetary Board, given his 
disgust with the inaction on the banking scandals, and he 
intends to update it.  He has not decided whether to quit the 
Monetary Board in disgust.  He expressed at length his 
disgust with cronyism in government, which hides corruption 
and promotes impunity. 
 
4.  (U)  He introduced EcoPol counselor to Diogenes Checo, 
Executive Director of the NGO "Aprenda," set up by the Punta 
Cana Group and associates to promote prevention of drug use. 
Rainieri wants to continue coordination with the USG on this 
topic.  Checo described Aprenda's efforts to educate company 
personnel departments to elaborate and apply anti-drug 
policies and to train employees.  He said that efforts had 
begun to sensitize staffs of participating banks about the 
legal consequences of accepting funds tied to drug 
trafficking and to orient supervisors of export firms about 
ways to detect and prevent smuggling to the United States. 
KUBISKE