“You've fattened up” and “you're going to come out rich” are some of the phrases that the former president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, addressed to his friend Ignacio Calatayud, in the WhatsApp conversations that have been analyzed by the UCO, through the Organized Crime Team.
The case investigates crimes of embezzlement of public funds, bribery and money laundering, among others, for the payments that San Ginés authorized to Calatayud during his Presidency.
“You need three lifetimes to thank me for what you've gained with me”, the former president even told the lawyer in another of those conversations.
When this case broke publicly, the agents searched both Pedro San Ginés's and Ignacio Calatayud's homes, and seized their mobile phones and other electronic devices. And after analyzing their content, they have already submitted their reports to the Court that is investigating the procedure. In them, they highlight dozens of communications between San Ginés and Calatayud, many of them after the events that later led to the start of this case began to be made public.
“Several files have been located from which a certain state of nervousness can be inferred about the possible consequences that the various publications made by the new management of the Cabildo de Lanzarote and the future legal actions derived from the investigated procedures could have for the investigated parties”, the agents state in one of their reports.
“I confess that now I am...”
“But Nacho, what they're saying is very serious. If they're not going to go to court, it seems like it. And if they're not going, why don't we go? Sorry, I confess that now I am...”, Pedro San Ginés wrote to Calatayud in one of those messages, after it was published that the lawyer could have improperly “appropriated” the court costs, which should have gone “to the active assets of Inalsa, to pay the creditors”.
“Is that thing about the active assets written anywhere? I know. Let them ask the administrators”, San Ginés added, anticipating the response he was going to receive from the lawyer.
The former president was referring to the four bankruptcy administrators of Inalsa, who are now also charged in this case. In the case of one of them, Pedro Martín, the investigation has discovered that his wife maintained a “working relationship” and “friendship” with Calatayud.
“Damn, Nacho, I'm just trying to understand”
As new data from this case became known, San Ginés and Calatayud exchanged many similar conversations. One of them, after it was published that Inalsa's first lawyer in the bankruptcy proceedings, Juan José Cobo Plana – whom San Ginés replaced with Calatayud when he came to the Presidency-, included all the bankruptcy incidents in his budget, which Calatayud, however, charged separately, skyrocketing his fees.
“Damn, Nacho, I'm just trying to understand and it's normal for me to ask questions, especially the first time I see something different (however much it may be a legal fabrication) from a fucking lying press release. And you don't have to get like that because of that. Come on, let's relax, the battle is long, and we get out of these together or we don't get out. And we have to get out because we are innocent. You rich and me poor, but both innocent”, the former president told Calatayud in another message, after the differences between the two contracts became public.
A “poor man” with assets valued at almost 800,000 euros
Just as he has done publicly, San Ginés alluded to his economic situation in those messages on more than one occasion, even using the word “poor”. “The only one who has fattened up is you (I'm happy for you) and I'm more broke than “mojama”, he told Calatayud.
However, after tracing his assets, the agents have put Pedro San Ginés's assets at almost 800,000 euros, only in the properties that have been seized by court order, and which include two villas, a Zodiaz PRO boat and several cars and motorcycles.
One of those houses is a key piece in the investigation, as it belonged to the company of Calatayud's wife, Juana Fernández de las Heras, and her father, Felipe Fernández Camero. The investigators believe that in that sale operation -of which they have found different contracts, in which the price was being reduced-, there could have been a bribe to the former president, in exchange for the millionaire awards to Calatayud.
“You delete the screenshot, you're a bigmouth”
“Listen... The one who should be grateful is you”, Ignacio Calatayud replied to San Ginés, when he told him that he would need “three lifetimes to thank” him for what he had gained with him. At that moment, as reflected in other communications, the conversation had entered a tense moment, after exchanging comments and documents about the news that was being published.
“And you keep quiet... And you delete the screenshot, you're a bigmouth...”, the lawyer warned when sending him one of those documents. That questioning about his lack of discretion, which is repeated in other messages, generated San Ginés's response demanding gratitude.
For the agents, these and other conversations “show that state of concern and uncertainty of the defendants” in the face of the information that was being made public, and which ended with the filing of a lawsuit that gave rise to this case.
“And they have the final firework display left, don't doubt it. The final firework display is the million and a bit euros that you will have charged from that... which I already know are yours but which they are going to use to make noise, don't have any doubt... all this has its icing on the cake”, San Ginés ventured in a message, which confirms that he was aware of the sum received by Calatayud, despite the fact that for years he has tried to minimize that amount, and even during his Presidency he hid the information and “lied” to the opposition, according to the summary of this case.
“At least we'll have the sculptures left”
Only for his intervention in the bankruptcy proceedings of Inalsa -which is what is being investigated in this criminal case-, the fees that Calatayud charged exceeded one and a half million euros, and to that we must add all the other lawsuits that San Ginés assigned to him during his term, both from the Cabildo and from all its dependent entities, with defeats such as that of the Cueva de Los Verdes.
In the middle, other controversies have also been added, such as that of the underwater museum that San Ginés decided to build with public money in front of the illegal Marina Rubicón marina, and for which Calatayud modeled.
After that information was published, San Ginés wrote to the lawyer. In the message he told him that the current councilor of the Tourist Centers had given a press conference “to say that the museum was to make figurines of Pedro's buddies”. “Nothing, you're already portrayed. I'm sorry friend”, he added. “My friendship with you is going to cost me my career!!! At least the sculptures will be left!!!”, Calatayud replied.
In his statements in court, in the case for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, the lawyer denied that there was a “friendship” between the two, despite the fact that San Ginés had publicly acknowledged it.