For the other defendants the prosecution asked the National District First Collegiate Court prison time and fines of 6 years and 2 million pesos for Mercantil’s ex vice president Évelyn Perez; 4 years and 1.5 billion pesos for the ex vice presidents Maximiliano Moya and Juan Reyes.

All were accused of forgery, embezzlement, breach of trust and other irregularities, whereas the Justice Ministry dropped all charges against the also ex vice-president Juan Oller and requested one year in prison against the private employee Rafael Faxas-Flores.

The prosecutors said the Mercantil bank fraud surpassed 11 billion pesos, since just the fraud against the monetary authorities was more than 8 billion.

However Perez’s lawyer, Carlos Balcácer, said the sentences requested are out of proportion, whereas the attorney for the plaintiffs, the Central Bank and the Banks Superintendence, Carlos Salcedo rebuffed the notion. “We see concurrence of responsibilities, that there is a Co-responsibility of all those involved.”

The Mercantil case is the third largest bank fraud in the country’s history, after Baninter’s US$2.5 billion, and Bancredito’s RD$20 billion, for which all of its former presidents and senior executives are serving prison sentences as long as 10 years.