Antonio Carbone of Dream Corporation Accused of Attempted Murder

Dream Corporation owner and Canadian businessman Antonio Carbone was arrested in late January in the Dominican Republic and charged with attempted murder.

It was reported that Carbone, 40, was nabbed by local police while attempting to board a flight to Canada. He is accused by Dominican investigators of the attempted murder of Dominican lawyer Fernando Arturo Baez Guerrero, who works as an administrator for Dream Corporation.

According to the investigation thus far, Antonio and his brother Francesco hired two men to kill Guerrero, but failed in their plans. A car-bomb attack was the means by which they planned to do away with Guerrero, but he was not sitting in his Jaguar at the time. Following a preliminary investigation, Antonio was sentenced in Santa Domingo court to one year of pretrial preventive detention.

This is not the first time the casino mogul has had a problem with authorities and the law.

He and his brother Francesco grew up in Woodbridge, a suburb of Toronto. As theglobeandmail.com reported, the brothers started a house painting business, then switched to tobacco distribution. In 2011, they became casino executives with the backing of Michael DeGroote, a successful Canadian businessman. They bought 12 casinos in a 13-month period and renovated them. The Carbone brothers created the most prestigious gaming company in the Dominican Republic, the Dream Corporation, that currently owns and operates 17 casinos.

The company had its eyes on becoming highly successful, but a lot of the wrong people got involved in the Dream story, from mafia bosses to those who wanted to take over control of the company. One of the names involved in the Dream Casino's “dirty business” was Vito Rizzuto, leading boss of the Sicilian mafia in Canada.

Arguments between him and the Carbone brothers could have easily ended in bloodshed, but the mafia boss died of lung cancer in 2013. Another person who was involved with the business was Andrew Pajak, a man with mafia ties, and part owner of the Dream Corporation.

Under such a setup. it was clear that at some point things could go in the wrong direction. Due to the mafia links, everybody was fighting for a piece of the company. DeGroote, who had no ties of this sort, realized that he had been the victim of fraud.

The brothers Carbone became involved in legal disputes with DeGroote, who claims that the Carbones defrauded him out of $107.3 million.

In 2013, Antonio was arrested for planning the murder of Andrew Pajak with Sasha Visser. However, the charges were dropped a few months later, without much of an explanation.

Carbone was transferred to San Pedro Prison, about 100 kilometers west of Punta Cana. He is now appealing the decision to be held in preventive custody for a year and claims he is completely innocent.

Photo: hechos.com.do