Ramón Báez Figueroa

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Ramón Báez Figueroa (born 1956) is the former president of Banco Intercontinental (Baninter) in the Dominican Republic and was accused in 2003 of masterminding the country's most spectacular banking fraud scandal amounting to USD$ 2.2 billion.

1 Background
2 Following His Arrest
3 Báez Figueroa's Supporters
4 Notes

[edit] Background

Báez Figueroa was born into one of the oldest and most prominent Dominican families — his great-grandfather Buenaventura Báez was five times president. Báez Figueroa was considered an aggressive deal-maker and helped build Baninter into the country's No. 2 private commercial bank, in the process amassing an empire of businesses. Among others, Baninter controlled the country's largest media group, including Listín Diario, the leading newspaper; four television stations; and more than 70 radio stations.

His generous gifts to friends, business partners and politicians over the years became legendary. Former president, Hipólito Mejía, got a bulletproof sports utility vehicle; so did his successor, current president Leonel Fernández. Col. Pedro Julio Goico, who served as Mr. Mejía's chief of security and who guarded Bill Clinton on visits to the United States, got 10 solid-gold Rolex watches worth $15,000 each and use of a credit card that the bank would pay off. But this is another case, because Col. Goico did all that without the aproval of Baez Figueroa, ending in a civil lawsuit against Col. Goico from Baez Figueroa and BANINTER, but for political reasons they where forced to drop the charges against Goico, and that's when he went to Spain.

[edit] Following His Arrest

Báez Figueroa was arrested May 15, 2003 along with Baninter vice presidents Marcos Báez Cocco and Vivian Lubrano de Castillo, on charges he had schemed to embezzle RD$ 55 billion (USD $2.2 billion). A $2.2 billion fraud would be big anywhere, but it was overwhelming for the Dominican Republic, equivalent to two-thirds of its national budget. Government officials said that two-thirds of the money that customers had deposited in Baninter was kept off its official books by a custom-designed software system. Banking regulators and the bank's auditor, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, were deceived for years.

Rumors that Baninter might be in trouble began circulating during fall of 2002, and depositors started to withdraw their savings. The Dominican Central Bank stepped in to support the bank by providing new lines of credit. Anxious for a more permanent solution, the government announced in early 2003 that Banco del Progreso, run by Pedro Castillo, the brother of Mr. Mejía's son-in-law, would acquire Baninter. But Banco del Progreso abruptly withdrew from the deal.

In April 2003, the government took control of Baninter, which is more than 80 percent owned by Mr. Báez Figueroa's family. Soon after, a deeper examination of the bank, supported by the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank, revealed the scale of Baninter's problems. President of the central bank, Francisco M. Guerrero Prats, and the banking superintendent, Alberto Elías Atallah, were replaced — though hardly demoted. Mr. Guerrero Prats worked as the country's foreign minister and Mr. Atallah worked directly for the president.

With 350 prosecution and defense witnesses slated to testify, ex- president Hipólito Mejía among them, a National District Collegiate began criminal proceedings against Mr. Báez Figueroa on April 2, 2006. However, the National District Collegiate Court decided to postpone the first hearing for May 19, 2006, accepting a motion by the defense lawyers.^[1]

[edit] Báez Figueroa's Supporters

Friends of Mr. Báez Figueroa, groping to explain the shortcuts he took in running Baninter, pointed to his political connections and a lack of competent middle managers at the bank. Mr. Báez Figueroa's lawyer, Marino Vinicio Castillo, said in an interview that the whole affair had been trumped up for political reasons, and that the claim that RD$55 billion had been embezzled was "a fable." Castillo went on to say that "very dark interests within the government that are blinded by ambition" were behind his client's imprisonment. He accused the government of wanting to dismember Baninter and divide the spoils. Pricewaterhouse Coopers had audited Baninter's books for years and approved them "without any reservations," Mr. Castillo said.

His defenders also claim former President Mejía saw Mr. Báez Figueroa as a threat to his families personal wealth and influence and to Mejía's ambition to win another term in office in the face of opposition even from within his own party. Taking control of Baninter's media properties and using them to win over public opinion, not cleaning up a scandal, was what the government was after, Mr. Báez Figueroa's backers say.

Even after his arrest Báez Figueroa remained a central figure in the country's elite, readily accessible even in jail. Within days of his arrest, he received visits from president Fernández, and Hatuey de Camps, the president of the Dominican Revolutionary Party.^[2]