Doral Financial Corp., the holding company for Puerto Rico’s second-largest mortgage lender, pressed its demand before a judge for a $229.9 million tax refund, with testimony from the company’s lawyer, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Doral and Puerto Rico agreed in 2012 that the company was entitled to the refund as a result of a restatement of earnings from 1998 to 2004. Puerto Rico’s treasury department voided the deal, claiming Doral obtained it through fraud. The numbers in the refund agreement “are correct,” Doral’s General Counsel Enrique Ubarri today told Superior Court Judge Laureana Perez Perez in the third day of a non-jury, Spanish-language trial in San Juan, amid repeated objections from island treasury officials. He said he reviewed the figures with Chief Executive Officer Glen Wakeman. Puerto Rico’s refusal to honor its agreement threatens to undermine all contracts between government agencies and private parties on the island, Doral said in its complaint.
