The operational structure of the Cibao Regional Oncology Institutea third-level center managed by the Non-Profit Association Patronato Cibaeño Contra el Cancer, operated under statutes that dictated that all positions on its Board of Directors must be held in a strictly honorary manner and without receiving remuneration.
However, a criminal investigation coordinated by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption and the Santiago Prosecutor’s Office determined that, between October 2018 and October 2025, a systematic scheme was executed that diverted an approximate amount of 148,660,116.70 Dominican pesos for the benefit of the main outgoing directors and associated companies.
During this management period, the National Health Insurance canalyzed towards the Board of Trustees a total of 3,754,064,167.76 Dominican pesos in public funds intended to cover medical care for cancer patients in the subsidized regime in the 14 provinces of Cibao.
At the time of the administration’s intervention, the center had a critical shortage, accounts receivable from the National Health Insurance for 104,275,183.41 Dominican pesos and an accumulated debt with laboratories and pharmaceutical companies of 404,214,629.81 Dominican pesos, with overdue invoices of up to 18 months.
fraudulent maneuvers
The file details direct alterations in clinical processes, drug dispensing and management of hospital spaces:
Cibao Regional Oncology Institute.
Chemotherapies with incomplete doses: In the outpatient area, the contents of a single bottle of chemotherapy medication were ordered to be divided between two different patients.
Subsequently, the system processed the billing of a complete bottle individually for each patient to the National Health Insurance, charging the insurance twice for a single dose dispensed.
Substitution of patented medications: The invoices issued to members and the state insurer included original biological medications from patented brands, but the internal pharmacy dispensed lower-cost generic equivalents to retain the illicit economic difference.
Marketing free samples: Nursing and medical staff were prohibited from handing out free drug samples provided by medical representatives. High-cost drugs that could not be sold under this modality were retained in an old air-conditioned file until their expiration date.
Document falsification in indications: A “Department for Changing Medical Indications” was set up, where even personnel without completed medical qualifications were hired, in order to transcribe prescriptions for patients referred from private centers. Without carrying out evaluations, stamps from internists, gynecologists, neurologists and orthopedists were used to add false diagnoses, studies and unnecessary laboratories for the sole purpose of billing them to the National Health Insurance.
Illicit privatization of rooms: Common admission rooms covered by health insurance were modified to accommodate a single bed.
The center charged rates of between 3,500.00 and 5,000.00 Dominican pesos per night in cash for them, forcing patients without resources to enter an indefinite waiting list or to receive chemotherapy in the hallways and emergencies. In parallel, room 204 was removed from oncological use and was reserved exclusively for the postoperative period of private cosmetic surgeries.
Irregular trafficking of controlled substances: Inspections of the National Directorate of Drug Control and the General Directorate of Medicines, Food and Health Products on July 11, 2023 and September 26, 2025 detected the outpatient sale of controlled drugs without permission, dispensing for hospital use outside of authorized channels and expired medicines since 2022.
A pattern of prescriptions in the form of repeated donations by an anesthesiologist was found to be diverted to people with addiction.
The corporate diversion, bribery and triangulation scheme
For the money extraction and laundering of the Board’s capital, the network implemented various commercial and financial modalities:
*He 3% scheme of the Health Risk Administrators: Héctor Antonio Lora Cruceta, president, and his ex-wife Dilcia Isabel Vargas Sánchez, vice president, transferred the billing of the Oncology Health Risk Administrators to the external firm Vargas Lora & Asociados, later Vargas Guzmán Accounting Center, owned by Vargas Sánchez herself. Through this self-contracting mechanism, the firm retained 3% of the amounts paid by the insurers to the Board of Trustees and 0.5% of the doctors’ fees, achieving a diversion of 100,557,821.55 Dominican pesos.
* Drainage for personal expenses: The use of funds from the Board of Trustees was detected to pay for private clinical hospitalizations of the board for 41,032.39 Dominican pesos, family expenses for 140,000.00 Dominican pesos, private medications for 100,000.00 Dominican pesos, private nursing for 12,000.00 Dominican pesos and the cancellation of a personal loan of Dilcia Vargas with the Cooperativa Ideal for 216,098.46 Dominican pesos.
* Use of Internet Banking and travel expenses: The president eliminated the system of double signature checks jointly with the treasurer and established electronic transfers operated only from his personal device. Under the concept of “Representation Expenses”, progressive monthly payments of between 100,000 and 600,000 Dominican pesos were self-assigned, accumulating 25,410,655.26 Dominican pesos, in addition to transfers for per diem, travel, hotels and restaurants without valid invoices or council approval for 20,336,972.50 Dominican pesos.
* Detours to the Tócate RD Foundation: According to the accusing body, 1,761,635.00 Dominican pesos were transferred from the accounts of the Board of Trustees to finance artistic activities, tea afternoons, lettering and complete upholstery of buses of the Tócate RD Foundation, a private entity chaired by the current wife of the president, Luisa Yasiris Guzmán de Lora. Guzmán de Lora additionally received 300,000.00 simulated Dominican pesos under a marketing manager position without a formal contract.
* Smuggling and resale of “Glossy” paper: Using customs and tax exemptions from the Humanitarian Board, massive imports of high-gloss photographic paper, inks and printers were managed. The product entered the country without taxes and Héctor Lora sold it at an undervalued price to the company Gestión Integral Tecnológica GAC, SRL, which subsequently resold those same inputs at a premium to the Board itself. This triangulation cumulatively diverted 887,940,410.11 Dominican pesos.
* Extortion and return of commissions: Héctor Lora conditioned late payments to the drug supplier Sean Dominican, SRL, which recorded an alleged account payable of 92,320,900.00 Dominican pesos without signatures or inventory stamps, in exchange for cash commissions of between 12.5% and 25% of the value of each invoice. To hide the trail, the company issued checks labeled “Contribution to Patronato Cibaeño Contra el Cancer” that the accused deposited irregularly in marginal account number 20, intended exclusively for cash receipts from the hospital’s cafeteria and photocopier. The operation totaled 6,548,971.25 Dominican pesos.
* Code triangulation: During the raids, service authorizations were confiscated where the entity Clínica Rosa Benita, SRL, owned in Dajabón by the accused director Thelma Sadi Rodríguez, billed medical care to the National Health Insurance irregularly using the provider code of the Patronato Cibaeño.
Sabotage, resistance and violent coercion
On October 6, 2025, the General Assembly of the Board of Trustees unanimously elected a new board of directors headed by Doctor Yván Alexis Mercader Mateo. In response, the outgoing board filed civil annulment lawsuits and filed oppositions to the delivery of securities before the banks BHD, Reservas and Cooperativa La Altagracia, paralyzing the operating funds intended for cancer patients.
On October 15, 2025, the Public Ministry and the public force had to carry out the physical expulsion of the accused from the facilities due to their refusal to vacate the registered office.
When the forensic auditors of the firm P. Armando Núñez & Asociados appeared, those involved deleted the digital records, payroll files and components of the accounting computer system, a technical sabotage maneuver certified by systems experts.
The investigations determined that the real institutional accounting was operated outside the hospital, in a financial center installed in the residence of Dilcia Vargas Sánchez.
The factual file concludes with allegations of serious coercion. The Oncology employee, Ernesto Enrique Valdezdeclared under oath that Héctor Lora met with him at his house and offered him 100,000.00 Dominican pesos in cash in exchange for removing hidden files from the presidential drawers.
After the worker’s refusal, he received calls from a person in charge of the foundation’s Shelter and from Luisa Yasiris Guzmán de Lora, warning him that they had a video of an altercation of his in the copying area to blackmail him.
Days later, an unknown person approached Valdez inside the cancer hospital and notified him that Héctor Lora had offered the sum of 20,000.00 Dominican pesos in the informal market in exchange for being stabbed “20 times,” urging him to take care of himself.
Conclusion: The judicial request of the Public Ministry
Given the seriousness of the systemic damage to state assets and public health, the destruction of digital evidence and the manifest risk of obstruction and physical intimidation of witnesses in the process, the Public Ministry has formally presented to the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of Santiago a request for a Declaration of Complexity of the Case and the imposition of Preventive Detention as an appropriate and proportional measure of coercion against Héctor Antonio Lora Cruceta, Dilcia Isabel Vargas Sánchez and Luisa Yasiris Guzmán de Lora.
The provisional legal qualifications charged in the instance correspond to the crimes of Association of Criminals according to articles 265 and 266 of the Penal Code, Bribery according to article 177, Blackmail based on article 400, Fraud to the detriment of the Dominican State according to article 405, Abuse of Trust according to article 408, Damage, Data Alteration and Computer Sabotage according to articles 10 and 11 of the Law 53-07 against High Technology Crimes and Crimes, Irregular Marketing of Controlled Substances by article 4 of Law 50-88, Serious Crimes against the General Health Law 42-01 in its articles 28, 132, 153, 154 and 155, and Money Laundering in accordance with articles 2, 3, 7, 9 and 33 of the Law 155-17.
