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LatinNews Daily - 15 May 2020
In brief: DR’s supreme court rules against port security company
* The Dominican Republic’s constitutional court (TC) has cancelled a congressional resolution approved in 2003 which authorised a contract signed in 2002 by the Dominican government and port security company ICCSI, for the latter to provide X-ray machines at ports in order to inspect cargo. The TC accepted an appeal presented by various local private sector associations, including the Consejo Nacional de la Empresa Privada and the Asociación Dominicana de Zonas Francas, and found that the contract created an “evident monopoly” in favour of ICSSI, in violation of the constitution. The company previously made headlines after one of its shareholders, Salomón Melgen, was sentenced in February 2018 to 17 years in prison after being convicted on 67 counts of healthcare fraud and related charges. Melgen featured in a corruption trial which took place in 2017 involving US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) amid allegations that Menendez had accepted gifts from Melgen and advocated before federal US agencies on behalf of ICSSI, although the charges against Menendez were subsequently dropped.
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