Public Prosecutor’s Office requests four more months to file charges against Santiago Hazim and nine other defendants

Santo Domingo.— The Public Ministry requested a four-month extension to present the formal indictment against the former director of the National Health Insurance (Senasa), Santiago Hazim, and nine other defendants in the case investigating an alleged multi-million dollar fraud against the Dominican State.

The request was filed before the coordinating judge of the National District Instruction Courts, Kenya Romero, by the heads of the Public Ministry’s Prosecution Directorate and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPCA), Wilson Camacho and Mirna Ortiz.

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The file will be sent to the Seventh Instruction Court of the National District, presided over by Judge Deiby Timoteo Peguero, who must notify the defendants’ defense teams and the lawyers representing the Dominican State, as well as schedule a hearing to hear the request for an extension.

Who is being charged?

In addition to Santiago Hazim, the process includes Rafael Luis Martínez Hazim, Gustavo Enrique Messina Cruz, Germán Rafael Robles Quiñones, Francisco Iván Minaya Pérez, and Ada Ledesma.

The first five are in preventive detention at the Las Parras Correction and Rehabilitation Center, while Ledesma is under house arrest.

Also charged are Eduardo Read Estrella, Cinty Acosta Sención, and Heidi Mariela Pineda Perdomo, who are under house arrest.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the latter had admitted before the court to paying bribes to Hazim and other Senasa officials, a collaboration that would have been taken into account to change the coercive measure of pretrial detention to house arrest.

Investigation exceeds RD$19 billion

According to the Public Prosecutor’s indictment, the defendants are allegedly linked to a structure that defrauded the Dominican State of more than RD$15 billion, an amount that, according to subsequent investigations cited by the prosecuting body, has increased to more than RD$19 billion.

The investigation establishes, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, that the alleged network operated between 2020 and 2025, affecting the public health risk system.

The defendants are charged with, among others, the crimes of coalition of public officials, prevarication, criminal association, fraud against the Dominican State, embezzlement, bribery, money laundering, forgery, and use of forged documents.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office reiterated that the investigation remains open and that, in addition to the individuals currently undergoing the process, other natural and legal persons remain under investigation.

The eventual filing of the formal indictment will depend on whether the court grants the extension request submitted by the prosecuting body.