Dominican govt seizes control of newspaper group

The government has taken control of the Dominican Republic’s oldest and most respected newspaper, as its main shareholder was charged in a £1.4bn fraud that bankrupted the Caribbean country’s second largest bank.

Besides confiscating Listin Diario, agents yesterday seized 70 radio stations and four television stations controlled by media baron Ramon Baez Figueroa, who was the main shareholder of Banco Intercontinental.

The government also fired several senior editors.

Flanked by police officers, the agents fired Listin Diario’s Editor-in-Chief Miguel Franjul, and replaced him with an interim manager, former Agriculture Ministry spokesman Juan Estevez.

“Everything will stay the same,” Estevez said. “We will have a newspaper tomorrow.”

The confiscation order said Baez and two executives detained with him have been charged with money laundering and mismanaging funds, with Baez also accused of orchestrating the fraud that led to the bank’s collapse, Franjul said.

Three other papers in the Listin Group also were seized and their editors fired, including Ruddy Gonzalez, editor of El Expreso and a vice president the Inter-American Press Association’s press freedom committee.

“The future is very bleak,” said Franjul. He cried as he addressed reporters, urging them to keep working for the 113-year-old paper because it was an important Dominican institution.

They agreed under protest – as long as there is no censorship. “They are trampling our freedom of press,” said Viviano de Leon, 42, who covers congress for Listin Diario.

Baez was detained yesterday after authorities revealed the bank’s losses totalled some £1.4bn.

Also detained were Baez’s brother, Marcos Baez Figueroa, and Vivian Lubrano.

Part of the money – equivalent to 15% of the country’s gross domestic product or 80% of the government budget – was lost through embezzlement and bogus deals, the Central Bank said.

Baez told the Central Bank he used some to buy vehicles and charter aircraft for Dominican President Hipolito Mejia and opposition leader Leonel Fernandez, give monthly allowances to Fernandez and about 70 generals, give contributions to members of the Supreme Court of Justice, the legislature and the Catholic Church and to buy 10 gold Rolex watches delivered to a former presidential security chief.

Central Bank Governor Jose Lois Malkum said that expenditure accounted for only a fraction of the fraud, committed by keeping a second set of books “administered by a few executives very close to the main stockholder”.

Baez’s lawyer, Marino Vinicio Castillo, said the charges against his client were coming from “malicious” forces.

Baez owned Bearpark International Ltd., which in turn owned the Listin Group, and he controlled Intercontinental Finance Group, which owned 70 radio stations and four television stations.

The government would not comment on the case.