Santo Domingo. – The Dominican Republic’s Central Electoral Board (JCE) has officially acknowledged that it contracted advertising and logistics services with Latin Events LLC and paid the company US$230,000 through an international SWIFT bank transfer. The admission came in response to a lawsuit filed by the company in the United States, where it seeks payment for additional services it claims to have provided during the Titanes del Caribe baseball series held at Citi Field in New York in November 2023.
While the JCE announced it will appeal the U.S. ruling in favor of Latin Events LLC, new documentary reviews conducted by El Faro Latino have identified financial transactions related to the Dominican overseas voting process whose documentary trail could not be verified using the information submitted by the JCE in compliance with a ruling issued by the Superior Administrative Court (TSA) in favor of El Faro Latino.
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The disclosure follows the JCE’s announcement that it will challenge the U.S. judgment that favored Latin Events LLC, a company seeking additional compensation for services it alleges were rendered during the Titanes del Caribe promotional events.
In its official statement, the JCE expressly acknowledged that it had, in fact, contracted part of the services provided by the company.
“The electoral body did agree with Latin Events to provide certain advertising and logistics services, which were fully paid through a SWIFT bank transfer from the Dominican Republic to the United States on May 21, 2024, in the amount of US$230,000,” the institution stated.
However, this public acknowledgment introduces a new element into the investigation that El Faro Latino has been conducting for months regarding the management of public funds allocated to the Dominican voting process abroad.
A Recognized Payment That Could Not Be Fully Reconstructed Through Documentation
As part of the judicial proceedings before the Superior Administrative Court (TSA), the JCE delivered thousands of documents in response to a court order requiring the institution to provide information concerning the budget, administration, execution, and management of public funds allocated to overseas voting.
Subsequently, a technical documentary review conducted by El Faro Latino concluded that several of the documents ordered by the court could not be clearly identified within the material delivered. These included budget approvals, bank transfer records, submissions to the Internal Audit Department, refund reports, remaining balances, and other documents necessary to fully reconstruct the financial execution of those public funds.
Now, following the JCE’s own public statement, an additional question arises.
The existence of an international payment of US$230,000, equivalent to approximately RD$13,418,844.00, reasonably implies the existence of a complete administrative and financial file containing authorizations, budget certifications, procurement records, bank confirmations, accounting records, and other supporting documentation normally associated with a transaction of that nature.
However, during the technical review of the documentation delivered by the JCE to El Faro Latino, no individualized documentary file could be identified that would allow investigators to reconstruct that financial transaction in its entirety.
The technical report prepared by El Faro Latino does not assign administrative or criminal responsibility. Instead, it concludes that the documentation supplied does not establish a complete documentary correspondence between several requirements contained in the TSA ruling and the documents actually delivered by the electoral authority.
More Than Half a Million Dollars Spent on Overseas Election Mail
The review also encompasses another of the largest expenditure categories executed during the 2024 electoral process.
Official documentation previously obtained by El Faro Latino through public records requests identifies payments totaling US$411,159.28 to suppliers in the United States for mailing election-related correspondence to Dominican citizens registered overseas.
An additional €122,588.61 was paid to European suppliers for similar mailing services.
Converted into U.S. dollars, the combined payments exceed approximately US$543,582.66, equivalent to roughly RD$31,714,134.42.
The official payment lists include companies such as Lino Press NY, K & J Energy, TC Delivers, Pro Mail, Press Zancan, GotPrint, and other vendors involved in the printing, preparation, and distribution of election correspondence.
Documentary Audit Identifies Partial Files
As part of its documentary audit, El Faro Latino reviewed the files later submitted by the JCE in response to the TSA court order.
The review identified documentation relating to certain suppliers, including Lino Press NY, demonstrating that some administrative supporting records were indeed included in the material delivered.
Nevertheless, the technical analysis determined that the documentation is dispersed throughout numerous files and does not permit a continuous, individualized reconstruction of all contracts and payments associated with the approximately US$543,582.66 allocated for overseas election mail.
Specifically, investigators were unable to establish, for each supplier, a complete documentary chain including the procurement process, administrative authorizations, budget certifications, service orders, final invoices, acceptance certificates, payment authorizations, and the corresponding bank transfer documentation.
From a documentary audit perspective, the existence of isolated records does not replace the need for complete administrative files capable of verifying the full traceability of public expenditures.
Investigation Continues
El Faro Latino will continue examining the correspondence between the payments officially acknowledged by the Central Electoral Board and the documentation actually delivered in compliance with the ruling of the Superior Administrative Court.
The newspaper is also conducting independent analyses of other expenditure categories related to the Dominican overseas voting process, including security contracts, catering services, transportation, travel allowances, and election logistics, to determine whether the administrative files supplied by the JCE are sufficient to fully verify the use of public funds allocated to organizing the 2024 elections abroad.
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