Leonel Fernandez, former President of the Dominican Republic in the 1990s, representing the Dominican Labor Party, was swept into office by Dominican voters, largely out of dissatisfaction with incumbent Hipolito Mejia, who under his watch the nation entered the largest recession in its history, the country's second largest bank collapsed, costing the national treasury $2.2 billion, as well as returning the growth trend of the 1990s, when the Dominican economy grew by 8% a year, all under Leonel Fernandez's watch as president. Leonel Fernandez left office with scandal in 2000 after a job-creating slush fund reported it could not find over $100 million dollars.
