El Faro Latino Warns the JCE of Legal Action in the U.S. Amid Denial of Justice in the Dominican Republic

New York: The newspaper El Faro Latino announced that it is prepared to initiate legal proceedings in the United States against the Dominican Republic’s Central Electoral Board (JCE), following the repeated refusal of this institution and Dominican courts to provide access to information regarding the management of overseas electoral funds for the 2024 elections.
In October 2024, El Faro Latino, invoking Law 200-04 on Free Access to Public Information, formally requested information from the JCE regarding the use of public resources in the overseas electoral process. However, the institution either denied or ignored the request, failing to comply with the legal deadlines.

Subsequently, in March 2025, a constitutional remedy (amparo) was filed before the Superior Administrative Court (TSA), with the hearing held on May 28. Judge Román Arturo Berroa Hiciano reserved his ruling and, to date, has not issued a decision—exceeding the timeframes established by Law 137-11 and the Dominican Constitution. This constitutes a clear pattern of denial of justice.

This is not an isolated case. During the 2020 elections, El Faro Latino documented and audited an alleged embezzlement exceeding US$4.6 million, including cash withdrawals of more than US$800,000 from New York ATMs, multimillion-dollar transfers to private accounts, disappearance of funds, and the closure of four Bank of America accounts due to suspicious transactions, allegedly reported to authorities through Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).

These findings were supported by a forensic audit conducted by the private auditing firm Disla Doñé & Asociados and delivered to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Administrative Corruption (PEPCA) in 2021, without any judicial progress to date.
Faced with this situation, El Faro Latino will turn to U.S. jurisdiction, where a significant portion of these financial operations took place. The case will be based on provisions such as 28 U.S.C. § 1782 (production of documents and testimony in federal courts), federal money laundering statutes (18 U.S.C. §§ 1956 and 1957), the Bank Secrecy Act, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The legal action will seek to investigate irregular financial operations related to the Dominican Republic’s overseas elections in both 2020 and 2024, compelling Bank of America and other financial institutions to provide documentation and determine whether federal violations occurred that warrant sanctions, criminal proceedings, or asset forfeiture.

“We firmly believe in transparency as a democratic principle. If Dominican courts fail to guarantee justice, we will pursue it in the United States, where laws are clear and accountability is mandatory,” stated Esteban Cabrera, director of El Faro Latino.
With this action, the newspaper aims to establish an international precedent for electoral transparency and accountability, warning that institutional silence will not deter the pursuit of truth or legal scrutiny. This effort is grounded in the fact that the alleged illicit acts were committed on U.S. soil, in U.S. dollars, undermining this country’s financial system.