The businessman Luis Lleó, who is one of the main defendants in the Unión case, has just received his first sentence of 15 months in prison. The facts are related to his private activity in the company "Consultores y Asesores Legales Lleó S.L.", of which he was a 50 percent partner with his nephew and complainant in this case. In addition, for the management of this same company he still has another pending trial, in which the Prosecutor's Office is asking for 4 years in prison and his family, which is exercising the private prosecution, 13 years in prison, in addition to a fine of 72,000 euros and compensation of 146,791 euros for crimes of misappropriation and attempted fraud, among others.
While waiting for the celebration of that trial, which has been suspended twice, the one that has already been resolved is one derived from a subsequent event. Specifically, what happened at a General Meeting of the company held in April 2015, when his family had already warned of alleged irregularities in the management of the company. At that meeting, according to the judgment, Luis Lleó "excluded Aday Lleó Carranza and Jaime Lleo Khunel from the company, and dismissed them from their positions as joint administrators, modified the management and administration regime, which became sole administration, and changed the registered office, which was in Arrecife, moving it to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria", appointing himself "as administrator". And he did all this after his brother and nephew left the meeting, after warning that the constitution of the Board was not valid because there was no secretary present.
"With the evident intention of undermining the patrimonial interests of the second partner, he continued with the aforementioned agenda", states the judgment issued by the Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife, which condemns Luis Lleó for a corporate crime, for which, in addition to 15 months in prison, he imposes a penalty of special disqualification for the exercise of the position of administrator of a commercial company for the same time, as well as the payment of court costs.
Annuls the agreements adopted "unilaterally" and without a secretary at the Board meeting
In addition, the judgment also annuls the agreements adopted at that General Meeting of the company. In that session, in which the accused ended up voting alone, after the other two members of the Board left, he was authorized to take actions against his nephew, Aday Lleó, trying to hold him responsible for some of the irregularities that had been detected in the company.
"He adopted the agreements unilaterally without any opposition and therefore achieving that such agreements were executive, with a majority that, had Aday and Jaime Lleó attended, would not have obtained, since they would have logically voted against, as they declare in the trial, which was known by the accused", the judgment states, against which an appeal is still possible.
The person who supposedly performed the functions of "secretary" at that Board meeting and was in charge of drawing up the minutes was the notary Pedro Eugenio Botella Torres, who did not have the competence to hold this position and was also charged in this case. In this regard, the judgment recalls that the charges against him were dismissed "because it was not considered that he had actively participated in the board meeting, but that he limited himself to drawing up the minutes".
Refuses to open proceedings against the notary for perjury
During the trial, the prosecution requested that new proceedings be opened against this notary for an alleged crime of perjury during the oral hearing. In it, he testified as a witness and, according to the judgment, defended "the validity of the board meeting, stating that it is true that he first asked by mistake who wanted to be president before secretary, that the accused appointed himself president after the two partners left the meeting, that he believes he acted as secretary at the board meeting - although nothing is mentioned in it in this regard - acknowledging that it is not among the functions of a notary to act as secretary of company boards, not being clear whether or not he can be secretary, stating that he would have to think about it".
However, Judge Margarita Gómez does not consider that the notary incurred in a crime of perjury in his statement in the trial. And although she refers to his "imprecisions", she points out that "they are not considered to be of the required intensity or of such importance that they can be included in the figure of perjury". Regarding the "contradictions" with respect to what he declared during the investigation phase, the magistrate recalls that at that time he declared as an accused and not as a witness, so he had no obligation to "tell the truth".
His family was asking for 6 years in prison in this trial alone
Although the judgment condemns Luis Lleó for the corporate crime for which the Public Prosecutor's Office accused him, which was asking for 21 months in prison, it acquits him of the other crime that his nephew charged him with, of documentary falsification. And it is that although the judgment declares the holding of that Board illegal and criminal, it does not consider that the minutes that were drawn up were false.
In total, the private prosecution was asking for 6 years in prison for Lleó, three for the corporate crime and another three for documentary falsification, with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of trust. This last point has also been rejected in the judgment, since it understands that Luis Lleó did not act "taking advantage of the relations with the two partners, but that it is carried out behind their backs, once they leave the meeting and therefore unaware that the agreements were being approved". In addition, it emphasizes that "the relations between them were terrible since 2007, having null or almost non-existent relation, according to all of them declare, in addition to the existence between them of multiple judicial proceedings in progress, even in the criminal order, so more than a relationship of trust there was a great distrust, which motivates the intervention of a notary in the board meeting".
Along with those other pending trials that Luis Lleó has for complaints filed by his family, he still has to sit on the bench for the piece that gave rise to the Unión case. In that piece, Lleó is accused of the alleged attempt to bribe Carlos Espino to unblock the construction of the Costa Roja plot, for which the Prosecutor's Office is asking for six years in prison. The other defendant, Fernando Becerra, has acknowledged that he acted as an intermediary in that attempted bribery and has accepted the sentence that the prosecutor is asking for him, of a year and a half in prison.
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