US embassy cable - 05SANTODOMINGO4743

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 004743 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, WHA/EPSC, INR/IAA, DRL; NSC FOR 
LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD; TREASURY 
FOR OASIA-MAUREEN WAFER; USDA FOR FAS; DHS FOR CIS-CARLOS 
ITURREGUI 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN DIVISION; USDOC 
FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WH; DOJ/OIA FOR RUDY OJALES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: DR, PGOV, CJAN, Dominican Politics 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN POLITICS II #3: DOMINICAN JUSTICE 
REVIVED: PLAN RENOVE AND ESTHER AGELAN CASASNOVAS 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 4689 
 
 1. (SBU) This is the third in a series reporting on the 
second year of the administration of Dominican president 
Leonel Fernandez. 
 
Dominican Justice Revived:  Plan RENOVE and Esther Agelan 
Casasnovas 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
- - 
 
Justice Esther Agelan Casasnovas has suddenly become the very 
visible and not blindfolded face of justice for the Dominican 
Republic.  On October 17 after 49 days of hearings Dominican 
Judge Esther Agelan Casasnovas found guilty ten of the 14 
defendents in the Plan RENOVE corruption case, accused of 
rake-offs and manipulation of the Meja government's scheme 
to subsidize the acquisition of Hyundai buses by transport 
unions.  Agelan sentenced former Interior Minister Pedro 
Bada to four years of house arrest and imposed a fine of 15 
million pesos, roughly USD 500,000 for misrepresentation, 
improper procedures and favoritism in distribution of 3335 
buses.  Even harder hit was another former president of 
RENOVE, Fabio Ruiz, who got four years in prison and a fine 
of 10 million pesos, about USD 360,000, for 
misrepresentations, fraud and embezzlement.  Businessman 
Milcades Amaro Guzman, secretary to the RENOVE board, was 
given three years in jail for fraud and a fine of 5 million 
pesos (US$167,000).  President of the National Transport 
Confederation Antonio Marte was convicted of the same charges 
and sentenced to three years and a fine of 8 million pesos. 
 
Agelan dismissed charges against former Foreign Minister Milo 
Jimenez, Jr., who had initially presided RENOVE, and three 
others.  She formally declared the proceedings to constitute 
a "complex case," thereby granting defendants 20 days to 
lodge appeals before the sentences would otherwise be carried 
out. 
 
Former president Hipolito Mejia groused to the press about 
"politicking"  (politiquera) in the case but he did not 
dispute the judge's integrity. 
 
U.S. citizen Sam Goodson (aka Shlomo Ben-Tov) is in jail in 
Miami pursuant to an extradition request from Agelan, 
formulated after he ducked out of RENOVE hearings in April 
and made his way across the island to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 
to take a flight back to his home town of Miami.  Goodson put 
together the export side of the RENOVE deal from Miami with a 
percentage payment to Magma Motors, the licensed Hyundai 
dealer in Santo Domingo. 
 
This is Agelan's second major finding this month. In a 
decision announced on October 10 she and Judge Katia 
Miguelina Jimnez held the line against dissident Judge 
Sergio Antonio Ortega on the Baninter bank fraud review, 
voting to confirm charges against defendants Ramon Baez 
Figueroa and Marcos Baez Cocco, overriding the investigating 
magistrate's recommendation to drop charges against 
influential operator Luis Alvarez Renta, and extending the 
charges to include money-laundering. 
 
These high-profile verdicts give a tonic jolt to the 
judiciary and an admonishment that the days may be arriving 
when Dominican customs of greasing palms, favoritism, and 
skimming from government contracts will be more risky.  A 
study by non-governmental organization "Participacin 
Ciudadana" published last year recorded the fact that of more 
than 100 cases of corruption brought to trial over the past 
twenty years, only one had resulted in a conviction. 
Agelan's verdict, if held up by the appeals court, will 
double that number and increase ten-fold the number of 
individuals convicted. 
 
But it is too early to celebrate.  Another face familiar to 
observers of the legal system is back on the scene: 
congressional representative Radhames Ramos Garca, convicted 
last March by the Supreme Court of smuggling 14 illegal 
Asians into the country several years ago when he was serving 
as a Dominican consul in Haiti.  Ramos Garca managed to 
delay his trial because he was subsequently elected to 
Congress - parliamentary immunity meant that he could be 
tried only by the Supreme Court, and only during legislative 
recesses.  He got a sentence of 18 months.  In early October 
he was released on parole, since with pre-trial detentions he 
had then spent nine months and eight days in detention. 
Yesterday he was back in the congressional staff building to 
pick up the keys to his office.  Congressmen never formally 
considered the calls to expel from the legislature their 
felonious colleague.  He says that he intends to run for 
re-election in the May, 2006 congressional elections.  The 
regional district attorney who authorized his parole 
threatens to revoke that motion if Ramos Garcia takes his 
place again in the current Congress. 
 
 
2. (U) Drafted by Michael Meigs. 
 
3. (U) This piece and others in our series can be consulted 
at our SIPRNET web site, 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodmingo  along with 
extensive other material. 
 
MINIMIZE CONSIDERED 
 
BRINEMAN