Superior Court of Lands Lawsuit on protected areas

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May 6th, 2008.

Lands in the East on a lawsuit are protected area.
The High Court of Lands (Tribunal Superior de Tierras) will hear the case next Friday 30th at 10:00 A.M.

The lands, which have tourism potential, are worth more than RD$100 billion (Dominican pesos).

Santo Domingo. The scandal that was generated due to the sale of more than 35 million square meters in the tourist area of Higüey, and that led to a legal dispute, has taken a new direction, after it has been determined on a land inspection that they are within the protected area of National Park of the East (Parque Nacional del Este).

An inspection carried out by surveyors Enrique Arismendi and Ángel Manuel Hernández Ozuna reports that the transaction violates Article 33 of the Sector Law on Protected Areas (Ley Sectorial de Áreas Protegidas) No. 202-04, dated July 30th, 2004.

The lawsuit that involves Daniel Antonio Minaya Rodríguez, as owner of the lands, as well as Spaniard entrepreneurs Ignacio Coronado Ruiz, Carlos Sánchez, and Andrés Liétor Martínez, acquirers, will be held next Friday 30th at a hearing set for 10:00 A.M. at the High Court of Lands (Tribunal Superior de Tierras).

During the trial, the State Attorney for that jurisdiction, Fermín Casilla Minaya, will release the Surveying report (Mensura), which stipulates that the lands are a protected area, and other evidence to prove the illegality of the maneuver.

According to the legal file, the lands have a value that exceeds RD$100 billion (Dominican pesos) in the real estate market, and they are beaches that cannot be exploited by individuals because they are a Nature-reserved area.

"Once the High Court (Tribunal Superior) delivers its verdict, then we wil prosecute those who are involved in the case, whom we are very clear who they are," warned the State Attorney.

According to Article 33 of Law No. 202-04 "protected areas are inalienable patrimony of the State and, in that virtue, no one can enjoy or dispose of them, but as it is established in this Sector Law on Protected Areas (Ley Sectorial de Áreas Protegidas), its regulations and standards, as well as the existing provisions in the General Law on Environment and Natural Resources (Ley General sobre Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales) No. 64-00 from August 18th, 2000. "

According to Casilla Minaya, the High Court of Lands (Tribunal Superior de Tierras) will have no other alternative but to annul the first-degree verdict dictated by the judge of the original jurisdiction of Higüey, "and to return the property to the same position that it was before."

Contract.

The Spaniard Ignacio Coronado Ruiz acquired the property through a sales contract and the privilege of unpaid seller, dated November 2, 2005, by the sum of U.S.$19.8 million payable in three installments, on behalf of the company Inversiones Trubia, S. A. As a seller appears Daniel Antonio Minaya Rodríguez.

According to a certification from the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (Dirección General de Impuestos Internos), in the acquiring company are listed as shareholders Inversiones CCF, S. A., in addition to Coronado Ruiz, Carlos Sánchez Hernández, and Andrés Liétor Martínez. Coronado Ruiz is the president of the company, which has an authorized capital of RD$25,000 (Dominican pesos), and a subscribed and paid capital of RD$2,500, whose head office was registered in Avenida Independencia without number, in the sector of La Feria, National District (Distrito Nacional).

The sum of U.S.$19.8 million agreed to for the real estate property would be paid in installments of U.S.$6.6 million at the latest the first of August, 2006, a similar amount the first of November of that year, but never earlier than three months after the payment cited above. The remaining U.S.$6.6 million should be paid on the first day of October, 2006.

Minaya Rodriguez, seller, is listed as a transient resident on the street K No. 1, Preconca Nueva, La Romana, while Inversiones Trubia, S.A. is residing at Avenida Abraham Lincoln No. 403 at the corner of Avenida Bolívar.

The parties had a common agreement to set the selling price at U.S.$14 per square meter of land, which has a portion of one literal meter facing the sea per 1,060 linear meters of depth.

According to the contract of sale, that real estate property is located in an area suitable for the development of tourism projects and hotel infrastructures "and has no objection to the development of these ones within the parameters established by the National Parks Sector Law (Ley Sectorial de Parques Nacionales), established in the Law No. 202 of July 30th, 2004. "

Extension.

The lands in dispute are divided into the lots 6-006-837, 6-006-838, 6-006-839, 6-006-840, 6004-26982, 6-004-10866, and 6-005-49.

The area marked with the number 6-004-10866 covers an area of 154 hectares, 93 areas, 18 hundred-areas; lot 6004-26982 has 205 hectares, 25 areas, and 99.32 hundred-areas.

While the lot 6-005-49 covers an area allocated in the inspection of 1,562 hectares, 15 areas. All amount to 23 million 223 thousand 417 square meters.

The other inspection, which corresponds to the same lot, covers an area of 12 million 577 thousand square meters, completing the extension of 35 million 800 thousand 522 square meters.

Another case.

As for the lot marked with the number 6-004-10866, which covers an area of 154 hectares, according to the State Attorney, in that area it was planned to build a hotel of 40 plazas per hectare. The project would be built by Spaniard entrepreneurs Pablo Piñero Ibernon and Gustavo Montenegro, from Inversiones Coconut, S. A., whom the State Secretariat of Tourism gave the go-ahead with a "No Objection".

However, investors withdrew from the project unleashed by the scandal that it would be built in a protected area.

Into the criminal.

The State Attorney has announced that he has written testimony for use in its due opportunity in possible criminal proceedings.

He warned that several people will be prosecuted who has a great economic power, given that the case will move from the real estate law to the criminal law.

"The State Attorney can initiate prosecution in his own name because the Law establishes it that way, and therefore it is up to me," he said.

Without involvement.

During inspection done to the lands, Casilla Rodríguez argued that there were found no legislators involved in the case.

So far he said that only the names that have surfaced are the ones of those who have sought to get the lands allotted to them.

"In the process thus far there hasen’t been encountered the name of any legislator, or former legislator," he said.




By Niza Campos.

Freddy Miranda
freddymiranda.com
Translated by
Orlando Alcántara