"A minimum of 40,000 euros" from the center's card in multiple withdrawals of 700 to 1,000 euros, was what one of the directors of the homes for minors arriving by boat to the Canary Islands withdrew, denounced for embezzlement of public funds by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. And using one of its suppliers as an ATM, a fruit shop in Lanzarote.
In the complaint filed against four directors of the Siglo XXI Social Response Foundation, Anti-Corruption emphasizes that "the operation of the centers in Gran Canaria and Lanzarote in question was so "irregular" and "opaque" that the bank where they received the public funds that financed their activity closed their accounts in application of the protocols for the prevention of money laundering."
"The defendants opened them in other entities and handled them with procedures in which cash withdrawals and transfers of funds of public origin to their personal accounts became common practice in their day-to-day lives," explains the prosecutor.
In the case of the center for minors in La Santa, in Lanzarote, Anti-Corruption sees "indications of high potential and incriminating significance" in its director, such as the fact that 60% of the funds that this foster home received from public administrations "were directly extracted in cash": 506,940 euros.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor of Las Palmas, Javier Ródenas, has asked the judge to order an "exhaustive" audit of the centers in question to find out in detail how they spent the public money, as he suspects that they embezzled it, at least in part.
4,874 euros to his personal account in seven transfers
In his examination of the accounts provided by the Siglo XXI Social Response Foundation, the prosecutor has found, for example, that the director of La Santa transferred 4,874 euros to his personal account in seven transfers, without having provided any payment related to the care of the minors in his charge that, in his opinion, justifies it.
Anti-Corruption details that a small fruit shop in Arrecife, run by a relative of a director of another center of the same entity, became one of the main suppliers of the Siglo XXI Social Response Foundation in Lanzarote, accounting for 35% of its expenses in terms of "hygiene, cleaning and food" (the store was transferred and now belongs to other owners).
In addition to his spending on fruit, the prosecutor draws attention to how the director of La Santa transformed that small store into his ATM, through the operation that banks call "cashback".
In a "cashback" operation, the customer asks the store where he makes a purchase to add to its amount another amount that he asks to receive in cash from the business's own cash register with the concept of "return"; then charging everything to the card, purchase and cash.
The practice, if the business accepts it, is legal and several banks describe it on their websites among the ways to use a credit card, but in this case it was used with a card from a center that was nourished by public funds for the care of minors.
The Prosecutor's Office also emphasizes in its complaint that the "opacity" of these withdrawals of funds in the fruit shop "is specifically intended to prevent verifying the control of the ultimate destination given to the money in cash."
In the case of the director of La Santa, he adds that "there is nothing on record regarding the cash obtained through 'cashback' when making payments." "Each of these operations in which cash of between 700 and 1,000 euros is obtained coincides with the fact that on that same day, or a day before or a day after, a cash withdrawal is made at an ATM, which also usually oscillates around 1,000 euros. All of this with an unknown final destination," Anti-Corruption points out.
Crimes of embezzlement, unfair administration and falsehood
In its complaint, the Prosecutor's Office not only argues that the operations it attributes to the four directors denounced may constitute crimes of embezzlement, unfair administration and falsehood, but that they had "consequences" for the minors they were supposed to care for.
"The diversion of public money caused a decrease in the quality of comprehensive care for minors, in the facilities of the centers and in their stays."
"The reflection of the irregular, defective, opaque, and diverted economic management of the centers for minors managed by the Siglo XXI Social Response Foundation, with the indicative diversion" of public money destined for the reception of minors in need, warns, "caused a decrease in the quality of comprehensive care for minors, in the facilities of the centers and in their stays," the prosecutor's office concludes.
