Ferrer denies defrauding the Arrecife City Council in the Montecarlo case

The owner of the company Tunera, Eduardo Ferrer, denied this Tuesday that he intended to defraud the Arrecife City Council (Lanzarote) by inflating invoices and charging for the same project twice in order to be awarded a contract without public tender in collusion with authorities and municipal employees.

In the third session of the oral hearing of the trial on the last piece of the 'Montecarlo case', a plot of alleged corruption in the Arrecife City Council, Ferrer rejected the prosecution's accusation that he invoiced only a few months of a program still underway and later the remaining months to evade public procurement rules, by splitting the total amount.

He did so, according to his statement before the first section of the Las Palmas Provincial Court, in order to be able to meet the expenses derived from the hiring of two employees whom he signed to develop a neighborhood revitalization project promoted by the City Council between 2010 and 2011, when Cándido Reguera was mayor.

Because -he stated- "I wanted to get paid monthly, which is how I pay, monthly", in order to have funds to cover "the payroll of the two girls" employed for that program.

Consequently, "I made a first invoice for 50% and a second for the other 50% of the project," he said, in a session held in the City of Justice of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

In addition, the head of Tunera Producciones denied that the second invoice falsely included other work he had done for the corporation, such as an Alejandro Sanz concert or the performance of an Arrecife representative at the Gala Drag Queen of the Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in order to overcharge.

In contrast to the prosecution's arguments, Ferrer said that he included in the same invoice for the second part of the project other payments he had pending because "it was the mayor who said to put everything in that invoice, at the end of the year."

Since there were "different assignments that were made to me from the Mayor's Office, and the mayor told me to put it all in one invoice," he added, insisting: "these are things that we had pending to collect, from delivery notes for services rendered."

Eduardo Ferrer maintained that, in any case, he always proceeded "with the utmost transparency" and that the second invoice was presented "with the breakdown of all the services provided, in detail."

And, when asked by his defense lawyer whether he induced Carlos Sáenz, then comptroller of the corporation, to "disregard compliance with public procurement regulations" so as not to have to compete with other companies for the award of the project, he stated: "in no case."

The businessman's defense has presented as an expert witness, on the other hand, an economist and professional auditor who, after analyzing all the invoices submitted by Tunera to the City Council, has issued a report ruling out that the company charged for work that it did not actually do or that it inflated its prices.

This expert has stated that there are a number of visual elements, such as photographs and journalistic information on the activities carried out and a series of invoices, tax payments, Social Security payments and so on, which corroborate the veracity of the businessman's words.

And he added that "the profit obtained is within reasonable margins" in all the services contracted and that there is no indication of "malicious splitting" of invoices.

Also appearing at the same hearing as defendants accused of alleged corruption, for allegedly being accomplices in Ferrer's alleged illicit profit, were former Arrecife councilors Eduardo Lasso (PIL), Isabel Martinón (PNL), Lorenzo Lemaur (PP) and Víctor San Ginés (PSOE), each from a different party and none of them in active politics.

As well as three more defendants, former advisor Blas Cedrés, and technicians José Nieves, now retired, and Miguel Ángel Leal,

All of them are in the dock for being signatories to invoices paid on one occasion or another to Tunera Producciones, and have supported the businessman's approach that all payments made to him were in accordance with the services provided.

According to their version, they themselves witnessed the activities organized by Tunera, in some cases, and in others they said they had signed them relying on City Council technicians who had previously given them the go-ahead.

This was summarized by Isabel Martinón, then Councilor for Finance, stating: "I received files with the signature of the comptroller, who is the one who audited, and, therefore, I trusted him", since "my job was political. I did not come in to take a technical profile, but a political one."

The oral hearing of this last piece of the Montecarlo Case will resume this Wednesday in the City of Justice of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.