"The Public Prosecutor's Office's indictment conforms to the reality of what happened." That is what the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, has admitted, more than 10 years after the investigation of the Yate case began, for the massive granting of illegal licenses in Playa Blanca. In a letter addressed to the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, Reyes confesses that he received more than 300,000 euros in cash from "different developers and builders as a reward" for granting those illegal permits.
To this amount, which he used for different purchases that he put in his family's name, are added almost another 200,000 euros that he admits he deposited in cash in accounts of "instrumental companies". In addition, he not only acknowledges that he was "gratified" with money in cash, but also with other "gifts" in 'kind', which he received from different businessmen.
In his letter, Reyes explains how he agreed with other defendants to "hide the ownership of the funds and assets that had been illegally acquired, as well as those that would continue to be acquired later." Thus, he acknowledges that he created a "shell company", with the collaboration of two tax advisors, and also that he used two front men to hide the assets acquired as a result of his "criminal municipal urban activity", as he himself defines it in his letter.
He was "fully aware" that the licenses were illegal
In addition to admitting the crimes of money laundering and bribery, Reyes expressly acknowledges that he incurred in crimes against land planning, by granting illegal building permits for hotel complexes being "fully aware of the nonconformity with the urban planning that was applicable, as well as the lack of legal and technical reports that would cover such arbitrary municipal decision."
In total, in the indictment admitted by Reyes, the Prosecutor's Office referred to 19 files of hotels and apartments, among which are the Princesa Yaiza hotel, the Son Bou hotel, the Papagayo Arena, the Meliá Volcán, the Dream Gran Castillo hotel, the Rubicón Palace, the Hesperia Puerto Calero and the Natura Palace hotel. To this, the Prosecutor's Office also added the file that authorized the Marina Rubicón marina and the one that gave the green light to the development of the Playa Blanca Partial Plan, which at that time was already extinguished, as later confirmed by the courts of justice when declaring it illegal.
Five cars, spa, a boat and a house
Reyes, who accepts an agreement of conformity with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the popular accusation, to avoid the trial and reduce the penalties that are requested for him and his family, details in his letter the assets that he acquired with the money obtained from the bribes, and that he put in his family's name.
Among them, as had already been detected by the report made by the Udyco, includes the purchase of 5 vehicles - a Toyota RAV4, a Mercedes Benz, a Saab, a Renault Kangoo and a Toyota Corolla-, for which he paid almost 80,000 euros. To this is added the acquisition of the boat el Pachi, which in total meant a disbursement of almost 144,000 euros; the purchase of a spa valued at more than 24,000 euros; and the down payment for the acquisition of a house in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the financing of part of that mortgage loan, worth 55,118 euros.
All these expenses had already been detected in the patrimonial investigation carried out by the specialized unit of the National Police, which indicated that the origin of the money with which he acquired these assets, which were in the name of his wife and children, was not justified. Now, as he announced he would do when presenting that letter of conformity, Reyes has already deposited in the account of the Provincial Court, "as payment of a fine for the crime of money laundering", those 300,172.61 euros, which are those he acknowledges he used for purchases that directly involve his family. However, the indictment referred to other purchases, including an apartment in Barcelona in the name of one of his daughters, valued at more than 350,000 euros. In total, the Police report raised the expenses and the movement of money of unjustified origin by the former mayor and his family to more than 1.2 million euros.
His family "was aware of how they had been financed"
"In order to collaborate with the Administration of Justice in helping to identify the remaining responsible parties, I declare that the members of my family who are indicated as owners of the assets were aware of how they had been financed and the rest of the defendants must have known and suspected the illicit origin of the money", states the letter submitted by the former mayor. "Likewise", he adds that he "expressly" acknowledges that for "the management of the assets obtained through the licenses granted, he devised the keeping of the accounts of the shell company Sea Sun Lanzarote SL through the tax advisors and defendants José Rafael Mesa Ferrer and Manuel Benito Mesa Ferrer".
Reyes admits that he "agreed with these defendants that said company should be incorporated and managed through the company Management & Consulting Lanzarote SL, with the pursued purpose of hiding the ownership of the funds and assets that had been illegally acquired, as well as those that would continue to be acquired later, to allow their enjoyment through their insertion in the legal economic circuit".
At least one of these two defendants, Manuel Benito Mesa Ferrer, has already confessed to the facts imputed to him, with another letter requesting an agreement of conformity. And the same has been done by Antonio Marcelo Machín and Simeón Camacho, who acknowledge having acted as front men for the former mayor, by appearing as partners together with Reyes' daughter in the company Acuimar Cachazo SL.
Cash deposits to launder "illicit money"
In addition to the expenses in cash purchases that he details in his letter, the former mayor also admits that he made "cash deposits for an amount of 130,720 euros" in the accounts of Sea Sun Lanzarote between 2004 and 2009. And he also acknowledges cash deposits in the accounts of the instrumental company Acuimar Cachazo SL between August 2002 and February 2008, for an amount of 51,106 euros.
"I used this entity with the purpose of hiding the assets from the people I trusted, who should have suspected the illicit origin of the cash deposits from the arbitrary acts of granting building permits", states the letter submitted by Reyes, who adds that "the defendants Antonio Marcelo Machín Arbelo and Simeón Camacho Camacho were used to cover up the decision to hide the assets acquired as a result of my criminal municipal urban activity, assisting me with the illicit origin of cash outlined in the indictment of the Public Prosecutor's Office."
He admits embezzlement and payments to a company of which he was a partner
Finally, José Francisco Reyes confesses the crimes of embezzlement and "subtraction of public funds" from the Yaiza Town Hall, for which the Prosecutor's Office also filed charges against him. Part of that embezzled money went directly into the hands of Reyes, who with the connivance of the secretary-intervenor, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, received allowances that he was not entitled to and charged the Town Hall for the payment of trips that were actually of an exclusively personal nature.
In addition, he acknowledges that he awarded municipal contracts to a commercial company of which he himself was a partner, together with his then PNL colleagues, Juan Carlos Becerra and Pedro de Armas. The company, Comcaype SL, had as its corporate purpose "real estate activities, construction and tourism activities", although it also managed a media outlet. The mayor signed a contract with that radio station by which the Town Hall gave him 2,400 euros per month, "as coverage of institutional events". And he did so "knowing that for reasons of his position he could not participate in the award" and had the "legal duty to abstain" for being a partner of the company.
According to the indictment of the Public Prosecutor's Office, now acknowledged by Reyes, in May 2007 the former mayor also made a deposit of 5,000 euros "of unjustified origin" in an account of the PNL. The former mayor was then vice-president of the party, while his partners of Comcaype, Juan Carlos Becerra and Pedro de Armas, were president and secretary respectively.
In the letter sent to the Second Section of the Provincial Court, which is scheduled to begin judging this case from March 20, Reyes undertakes to ratify his confession before the lawyer of the Administration of Justice "prior to the hearing" and also during the oral trial, "if necessary".
