San Ginés Case

Cobo Plana never resigned as Inalsa's lawyer, he was dismissed by San Ginés to appoint his friend Calatayud

The magistrate, an expert in Commercial Law, appeared as a witness last Friday before the Court of Instruction No. 3 of Arrecife, which is investigating the San Ginés case, and denied that he had resigned from the bankruptcy proceedings.

October 19 2022 (20:11 WEST)
Updated in October 20 2022 (10:01 WEST)
Pedro San Ginés and Ignacio Calatayud, upon their arrival at the Courts (PHOTOS: José Luis Carrasco)
Pedro San Ginés and Ignacio Calatayud, upon their arrival at the Courts (PHOTOS: José Luis Carrasco)

Pedro San Ginés' (CC) legal situation continues to complicate following the statement of witness Juan José Cobo Plana. The magistrate appeared last Friday before the Court of Instruction No. 3 of Arrecife to clarify the reason for the change of lawyer in the Inalsa bankruptcy proceedings after Pedro San Ginés arrived at the Presidency of the Cabildo, since his first decision was to hire his friend Ignacio Calatayud as lawyer for the public water company replacing Cobo Plana, alleging that he had "resigned" from continuing as the company's lawyer and that it was "urgent" to hire a new lawyer to avoid leaving the entity "defenseless."

The witness flatly denied having ceased of his own volition in the legal direction of the public company's bankruptcy proceedings and clarified that his replacement by Ignacio Calatayud was due to a personal decision by Pedro San Ginés, who dismissed him as Inalsa's lawyer to hire his close friend as the new lawyer for the public company.

Cobo Plana is considered one of the leading experts in Bankruptcy Law in the Canary Islands due to his status as a magistrate of Commercial Law and his experience in private practice as a lawyer specializing in bankruptcy proceedings. For this reason, he was the first lawyer hired by Inalsa to defend the bankruptcy proceedings that the public water company filed at the time, one of the largest and most complex that have been processed before the courts of the islands.

The magistrate's statement thus leaves Pedro San Ginés without an "alibi," who always maintained that Calatayud's appointment was due to urgent reasons due to Cobo Plana's resignation, which would have left Inalsa without legal defense. The witness's statement reveals this falsehood and demonstrates that the hiring of his friend was only due to San Ginés' firm will to favor Calatayud's interests.

But the witness's statement went even further by stating categorically during his interrogation that the incidents, contrary to what was maintained by San Ginés and the accused judicial administrator, Pedro Martín, are part of the so-called common phase of the bankruptcy procedure, for which they cannot be invoiced independently in any case.

Likewise, and at the request of the investigating judge and the prosecutor, Cobo Plana clarified that the legal costs are always the property of the client (Inalsa and the Water Consortium of Lanzarote) and that in the case of the public company, in a situation of bankruptcy proceedings, it is mandatory that its amount be used to pay the debts with the creditors, and neither the Bankruptcy Administration of Inalsa, nor the company itself, can agree that Ignacio Calatayud should keep the costs if he wins the incidents.

San Ginés' legal situation becomes complicated

It should be remembered that Pedro San Ginés has always justified the hiring of Ignacio Calatayud based on that false resignation of Cobo Plana. According to his explanations, San Ginés informed the Board of Directors of Inalsa that the company had been left defenseless in the bankruptcy proceedings and urgently needed a lawyer, so he proposed the hiring of his friend.

Legal sources close to the case consider that Cobo Plana's statement is of great importance because it demonstrates that Calatayud's hiring was illegal from the beginning since it was based on a false reason (the alleged resignation of Cobo Plana) and reveals the fabrication concocted by San Ginés to pass off Calatayud's hiring as urgent and indispensable.

The same sources have highlighted the forcefulness with which the witness responded to the questions of the Investigating Judge, the Prosecutor, the prosecution and the defense, clarifying that the "bankruptcy incidents" are part of the "common phase" and that the fees received by the lawyer of the bankrupt for the common phase include the defense of the incidents, confirming that the "legal costs" are the property of the client, not the lawyer, and that when it comes to costs accrued in a bankruptcy proceeding, the money from them is not used to pay the lawyer but to meet the credits that the bankrupt company has.

The statement of Cobo Plana, the leading expert in Bankruptcy Law in the Canary Islands, shatters Pedro San Ginés' legal strategy by leaving the irregular hiring of Calatayud without justification and clearly pointing out Calatayud's collections as illegal because they are an improper appropriation of public funds, consented to and publicly justified by the former president.

An exceptional witness

Juan José Cobo Plana adds to his status as a witness that of an expert of exceptional qualification, that of an authentic judicial expert, since at the time of the events he was a Judge on leave from the Commercial Court of Las Palmas and had enormous experience as a lawyer in almost a hundred bankruptcy proceedings, being currently president of the Fourth Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, specialized in Commercial matters.

He has been awarded by the Ministry of Justice with the Distinguished Cross of the First Class of the Order of San Raimundo de Peñafort. It is a Spanish civil decoration that rewards relevant merits contracted by all those involved in the Administration of Justice, the cultivation and application of the study of law in all its branches or the services provided in legal activities dependent on the Ministry of Justice.

His important research work is reflected in the numerous articles he has published in specialized journals and the twelve books of which he is the author. Precisely two of them are titled "The judicial costs in the LEC 1/2000" and "Doctrine of the Commercial Courts on the Bankruptcy Law", which guarantees his quality as an expert in the San Ginés Case for dealing with key issues that affect the investigation.

The magistrate enjoys wide public recognition since he was the real protagonist of the "salvation" of the Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, after the club entered bankruptcy proceedings. His involvement and his extraordinary management as a magistrate of Commercial Law was widely recognized not only by legal experts, but by the island society itself, becoming a true legend in broad social strata that far exceeded the fans of the Gran Canaria team.

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