The popular accusation in the case for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, exercised by the Podemos Group of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, has requested that a separate piece be opened to investigate a possible crime of embezzlement of public funds in the payment of two legal reports that have been used by Pedro San Ginés to support his defense in this criminal proceeding.
According to the formation, one of the reports cost more than 17,500 euros and was commissioned by the Island Water Council to Blanca Lozano Cutanda, professor of Administrative Law of the Basque Country, who had also been hired by the businessman Juan Francisco Rosa to act as an expert witness in the Stratvs case, preparing a report in his defense. The other is signed by Professor Manuel Rebollo Puig and was commissioned by the Water Consortium, as stated in the report itself.
However, the popular accusation maintains that "neither of the two reports has had a public utility" and it is not even "stated that they have been contributed in the contentious-administrative proceedings" that were open with Club Lanzarote for the seizure, so it concludes that "they were commissioned exclusively for the criminal proceeding" opened against San Ginés. In fact, the two were prepared a few months after the president declared for the first time as an accused in this case in August 2015.
Dated November 18 and provided by San Ginés to the Court 6 days later
The popular accusation considers that this fact "already reflects what was the true purpose of requesting these reports", but adds that to this "is also added the speed with which they were used for the personal purposes of San Ginés", who in one of the cases "took only six days to contribute it in the criminal case opened against him". Specifically, one of the reports is dated November 18, 2015 and San Ginés' defense presented it in Court on November 24, while the other is dated November 30 of that same year and was sent to the investigating judge on December 18.
The request to open these new proceedings has been raised in the same qualification document in which the popular accusation requests the opening of oral trial against San Ginés and against the secretary and manager of the Island Water Council, Francisco Perdomo and José Juan Hernández Duchemín, and in which it demands 12 years of disqualification for each one. If this request is accepted, it would be the second separate piece of the case, since there is another one that also investigates alleged crimes of embezzlement in the payments made to another legal advisor, the lawyer and personal friend of the president Ignacio Calatayud, who also prepared a report on the seizure after this measure was executed.
Now, the investigation could be extended to two reports commissioned a year later. "The described facts could be susceptible of being qualified as a crime of embezzlement, having been commissioned for the criminal proceeding in defense of the accused", being able to have been "paid for with public money with the sole purpose of defending personal interests", the document maintains, which requests that a separate piece be formed "for the purposes of determining the criminal responsibilities" in which the president could have incurred.
Requests that the Court request information from the Council and the Consortium
In the first place, the accusation requests that an official letter be sent to the Island Water Council and the Island Water Consortium "to prove who has paid for these reports and what cost they have had, to proceed in their case" to the opening of new proceedings. However, Podemos affirms that "at least in the case of one of them it is already stated that it was paid for with public money, as confirmed by the Island Water Council itself in June 2016".
That confirmation occurred in a response to the purple formation, which had asked in writing if legal reports related to the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant had been commissioned, as well as how much they had cost and who had paid for them. In its response, the manager of the Water Council admitted that that body had hired Gómez-Acebo & Pombo S.L.P. "the issuance of an edict / report regarding the seizure measures of the integral water cycle infrastructures in the Montaña Roja Partial Plan and the need for judicial authorization, to be drafted by a professor of Administrative Law, which was drafted by Mrs. Professor Doña Blanca Lozano Cutanda".
In addition, it confirmed that the Council paid 17,500 euros, taxes not included, for that report, which was commissioned more than a year after carrying out the seizure and when San Ginés had already been charged, among other things, for adopting that measure without a single legal report to support it. Regarding the other report also prepared a year after the seizure, the accusation points out that "it is stated that it was requested by the Water Consortium, but this body has not reported the commission of that report or what its price was". For this reason, it requests that the Court request information on both payments to investigate a possible crime of embezzlement.
