Operator News

The Dominican Republic – Lottery fraud investigation deepens in Dominican

By Phil - 31 August 2021

The preventive detention of William Rosario Ortiz the ex president of The National Federation of Lottery Betting Parlours (FENEBANCA) has been upheld by an appeals court. Rosario Ortiz is the only defendant who appealed out of ten defendants who have been indicted as part of a lottery corruption case dubbed ‘Operation 13.’ Ortiz alongside his alleged co-conspirators stand accused of criminal conspiracy, fraud and money laundering.

Deputy Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso highlighted the merits of the investigations carried out by the Public Ministry saying that the decision gave additional weight to the seriousness of the charges levelled against those involved in the alleged scam.

In May The Dominican Republic National Lottery announced that it had carried a seven month investigation into lottery related fraud initially involving a suspicious lottery draw that took place that month. The lottery headed by Luis Maisichell Dicent said that it would review as many as 100 draws carried out over the previous ten years.

In June events took an unexpected turn when Dicent himself was arrested after the Public Ministry accused Dicent planning and orchestrating the scam.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement that Luis Dicent and those arrested through Operation 13 had undermined “the dream of Dominicans who trusted that one day luck would touch them and they could benefit from National Lottery prizes.”

On May 1 the group of defendants allegedly carried out a fraudulent drawing. According to prosecutors Valentina Rosario pretended to extract number 13 as a jackpot.

Lawmaker Máximo Castro Silverio has since said he is working on a bill to close the National Lottery and all lottery outlets for up to seven months. The bill would allow an Executive appointed commission to overhaul the lottery, and reduce the number of lottery games.