The former administrator of the National Lottery, Luis Maisichell Dicent, created the conditions to carry out fraudulent operations in that state institution, investigated in the course of “Operation 13”.
According to the formal accusation of the Attorney General’s Office, Dicent created a corporate network to fraudulently steal money from the owners of banks, consortiums and gambling concessionaires in the national territory, using their condition of director of the National Lottery.
Also, always according to the accusation, the defendant carried out fraudulent maneuvers “in association with public employees under his direction, “fraud, exercising prevarication, embezzling the institution he directed.”
Dicent, he adds, “created the necessary interconnection and internal facilities so that, within the place that had control and command responsibility, the fraudulent maneuver was carried out, all coordinated at the operational level with his former boss and inseparable partner, the accused William Lisandro Rosario Ortiz, who uses, in the development of the operation, the extraditable Leónidas Medina Arvelo (Naza, or Nazareth)”.
In addition, it exposes, as director of the Lottery, Dicent “conspired with several defendants to obtain economic resources from the assets of the owners of National Lottery banks.”
complicity case
The defendants who joined Dicent’s maneuvers, according to the Public Ministry, were Valentina Rosario Cruz, presenter of the draw; Miguel Arsenio Mejía Rodríguez, blind person who participated in the contest; Carlos Berigüete, Lottery technical support; Rafael Mesa Nova, driver of the institution, and Jonathan Augusto Brea Ovalles, supervisor.
Likewise, he points out, Dicent was associated with his former boss and “current partner”, the former president of the National Federation of Lottery Banks (Fenabanca), Wiliam Lisandro Rosario Ortiz; with Eladio Batista Valerio (El gago); Leónidas Medina Arvelo (Naza), who allegedly “paid bribes to the defendants Rosario Cruz, Mejía Rodríguez, Berigüete Pérez Mesa Nova, Brea Ovalles and Medina Arvelo” in exchange for their participation in an attempted fraudulent draw and in the fraudulent draw made in the National Lottery through draw number 6066 on May 1, 2021.
The Extraditables
The defendant Leónidas Medina Arvelo, in charge of moving the diverted resources, and Rosario Ortiz, are requested for extradition and part of the diverted resources did not reach the Dominican Republic due to the actions of the Public Ministry, the file details.
“It is evident that with this conduct the defendants incur in the preceding crimes of bribery, coalition of officials, fraud and influence peddling since without the defendants who were public officials it was impossible for the fraud to materialize, so the conduct displayed by them contributed the necessary contribution for the configuration of the type”, indicates the accusation.
The main accusations against Dicent are the author of association of malefactors duly typified in articles 265 and 266 of the Penal Code; author of fraud against the State in accordance with article 405; author of coalition of officials and prevarication typified in articles 123, 124, 166, 167, 174 and 175.
In addition to being the author of active bribery typified in articles 3 and 5 of Law 448-06 on Bribery in Commerce and Investment and articles 179 and 180 of the Dominican Penal Code and money laundering in accordance with article 3 in numerals 1, 2 and 3, articles 4 numerals 9 and 10 and article 8 numerals 1 and 5 and article 9 numeral 2 and 4 of Law 155-17 against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (money laundering, figurehead, aggravated circumstances of money laundering).
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Meanwhile, Rosario Ortiz, Medina Arvelo, Rosario Cruz, Mejía Rodríguez, Brea Ovalles, Perdomo Peralta, Mesa Nova, Berigüete Pérez, Santiago Toribio and Batista Valerio are accused of planning and executing the fraud of the number 6066 draw in the National Lottery, through the first prize corresponding to bolus number 13.
In addition, most of these defendants are accused of criminal association, fraud against the State, bribery and money laundering.
So far, Dicent, as well as Rosario Ortiz and Batista Valerio, are serving in preventive detention.
While Valentina Rosario Cruz, Jonathan Brea, Carlos Berigüete and Felipe Santiago Toribio are serving house arrest.
In addition, Edison Manuel Perdomo Peralta, Miguel Mejía Rafael Mesa, have regular presentations and are prevented from leaving the country.
The fugitive Leónidas Medina Arvelo (Nazareth) is also linked to the case.