María Isabel Déniz considerably increased her assets in the six years she was mayor of Arrecife. Specifically, she bought, together with her husband, three cars, a motorcycle, two houses and a boat between 2001 and 2007. In addition, she made different cash deposits to her account and that of her daughter, who had no income, to renovate the real estate acquired and to pay the taxes for the acquisition of these properties and motor vehicles.
The cash came from the bribes she asked from the manager of the company TECMED in Lanzarote, Jacinto Álvarez. In addition, during this time she acquired a farm in El Morro, in front of the Teguise Wind Farm, for 36,000 euros, as well as 2,163 euros in taxes. For both payments, she did not withdraw money from her bank accounts.
Meanwhile, on October 8, 2004, she bought a bungalow in Famara, valued at 120,000 euros, where she built a swimming pool. Regarding the payment of this house, on October 10, 2004, Déniz received a communication from the Bank of Spain regarding currency traffic when sending these 120,000 euros to the Netherlands. After that, on October 20, 2004, she received a new communication upon receiving 120,000 euros from this country.
The Court understands that as these operations are not reflected in the bank accounts of the accused or her husband, it remains unjustified how they paid the 120,000 euros with which they bought the bungalow. On the other hand, they both paid 7,200 euros in tax for the purchase of this space, but without any related bank movements.
Between 2001 and 2006, the Court assures that Isabel Déniz and her husband invested at least 86,667.93 euros in buying three cars and a motorcycle: a Volkswagen Passat, a Volkswagen Toureg, a Suzuki Samurai and a BMW motorcycle.
The Volkswagen Toureg cost a total of 37,760 euros in 2003 plus 240 euros for advice and management. One part, 12,000 euros, was paid by bank check and the rest, 26,000 euros, was paid by the mayor's husband.
Meanwhile, the Susuzi Samurai was acquired in August 2005 and was owned by the mayor's husband until it was transferred in March 2006. In this case, they paid 4,500 euros in cash.
For its part, the motorcycle cost 30,500 euros and was paid with cash without reflection in the bank accounts of Déniz and her husband.
About the Nauticat brand sailboat and model 43, they paid 60,000 euros that were deposited in cash. At first it was going to be paid by a policy that was later canceled after receiving a bank transfer of 80,869 euros. During this time, Isabel Déniz's husband also acquired a Perkins naval engine that he paid for in cash in two installments.
In addition, regarding the payments to the domestic worker that Isabel Déniz had hired in her home, the 8,800 euros that she paid before those payments were assumed by Urbaser do not appear in her bank accounts either.
Argana Pavilion
The awarding of the construction of the Argana Alta Pavilion to the company Fomento Construcciones y Contratas SA cost the Arrecife City Council more than 10.6 million euros. However, to this day it is still not open to the inhabitants of this neighborhood of the capital of Lanzarote. Now a judicial ruling reveals that this space was awarded within the framework of a corruption plot.
In 2003, the head of the Technical Office, Juan Rafael Arrocha, demanded money from the company FCC in exchange for reporting favorably and granting them the drafting of the project and the construction of the Argana Alta pavilion. This is revealed by the proven facts of the ruling issued this past Monday by the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas.
Within the framework of this operation, FCC paid a company in which Rafael Arrocha had shares the amount of 136,999.55 euros in different invoices and over several years.
In this same section it is recognized that the then mayor of Arrecife (2001-2007) demanded the payment of a luxury trip of eight nights to Marrakech for her and seven direct relatives in exchange for the awarding of the contract. The costs of this trip amounted to 16,674.11 euros.