One of the main parts of the Unión case, focused on the collection of bribes and the embezzlement of public funds from the Arrecife City Council, already has a sentence. Almost six months after the trial ended, the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court has sentenced ten of the twelve people who sat on the bench, imposing one of the harshest penalties on the historical leader of the PIL, Dimas Martín, whom it identifies as "the true "mastermind" of the corrupt plot, also considering him the author of a crime of illicit association.
Along with Dimas, who must serve seven years and five months in prison, the former PIL councilors Ubaldo Becerra and Antonio Machín - who receives the harshest sentence, of eight years in prison - the former auditor of Arrecife, Carlos Sáenz, the former head of the Technical Office, Rafael Arrocha, the businessmen Antonio Gómez Ruiz, Manuel Gregorio Reina Fabre, Jesús Manuel Martín Brito and Samuel Lemes, and the engineer Antonio Cárdenas have been convicted; while the head of the Contracting area of Arrecife and daughter of Dimas Martín, Elena Martín, and the businessman Juan Francisco Rosa have been acquitted.
In the case of Rosa, his indictment was not related to the central plot but to an alleged crime of falsification of a commercial document. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the businessman faked that contract so that the historical leader of the PIL could obtain the third degree of penitentiary, since at that time he was serving another sentence in the Tahíche prison. However, the Court concludes that this contract was not decisive for obtaining that prison benefit and therefore acquits him of the crime of document forgery.
"It is difficult to imagine Dimas taking care of the garden of the Fariones hotel"
"Of course, it can be argued, as the Public Prosecutor's Office does, that it is difficult to imagine Don Dimas taking care of the garden of the Fariones hotel", the sentence states in this regard, referring to the statement made by both Dimas Martín himself and Juan Francisco Rosa during the trial, in which the businessman retracted his initial confession after being arrested in this case and went on to assure that this employment relationship really existed.
However, although the Court questions these statements, it adds that "the fact that the work for which he was hired may not actually be performed is irrelevant" for criminal purposes, insisting that what is decisive for there to be document forgery is "whether this relationship was feigned with a single purpose, access to the third degree".
"That one wants to simulate a donation with an employment contract matters little for the purposes of the crime for which he is accused, nor does the alleged purpose of obtaining Dimas' favors in the hotel business", adds the Court, which, as the Public Prosecutor's Office maintained, considers that from the conversations heard during the trial it does "seem to emerge" that Juan Francisco Rosa was seeking Dimas' favor to try to legalize his illegal hotels. In any case, whether he actually worked or not, the ruling states that Rosa was able to prove that he paid payrolls to the historical leader of the PIL, and concludes that "reflecting an existing business reality" with "false or inaccurate data" is not punished "when the author is a private individual".
Prison sentences and fines of hundreds of thousands of euros
As for the ten convicted, the sentence imposes on Dimas Martín seven years and five months in prison, 22 years of disqualification and a fine of 4,200 euros and another of 219,000 euros. In the case of that second fine, it corresponds to the money that the Court considers proven that he received in bribes from different businessmen, who charged fraudulent invoices from the Arrecife City Council thanks to the intervention of the historical leader of the PIL. In addition, jointly and severally with other defendants, Dimas will have to return 129,985 euros to the City Council.
Regarding the crimes, the sentence considers that he incurred in illicit association, bribery, embezzlement of public funds of special gravity, fraud and prevarication. And as with the rest of the convicted, the ruling warns that failure to pay the economic responsibilities set by the sentence will imply increasing the time in prison.
Regarding the PIL councilors, Ubaldo Becerra has been convicted of the same crimes of illicit association, bribery, embezzlement, fraud and prevarication, although in his case the sentence has been reduced by applying his confession and collaboration with Justice as an extenuating circumstance. Thus, it imposes on him 4 years and two months in prison, 17 years of disqualification and a total fine of 70,900 euros, in addition to the obligation to return to the City Council, jointly and severally with the rest of the convicted, the embezzled money.
For his part, Antonio Machín has been convicted of bribery, embezzlement, fraud, falsification of a commercial document and prevarication, imposing in his case penalties of eight years and one day in prison, 18 of disqualification and a fine of 95,000 euros (corresponding to the value of the bribe that he considers proven), together with the obligation to jointly and severally return 79,406 euros to the Arrecife City Council.
As for the former auditor of Arrecife, Carlos Sáenz, who is currently in prison serving another sentence and who confessed to the crimes during this trial, the sentence considers him the author of a continued crime of embezzlement of public funds of special gravity, in conjunction with a continued crime of fraud and two others of falsification of a commercial document and of prevarication, and imposes on him three years and six months in prison and absolute disqualification for a period of five years, in addition to the obligation to jointly and severally return 129,985 euros to the City Council.
Conviction of all businessmen accused of embezzlement
As for the businessmen who charged fraudulent invoices from the City Council, the sentence condemns both those who confessed during the trial and those who tried to deny the facts, reducing the penalties in the case of those who admitted the crimes.
Thus, Antonio Gómez Ruiz is imposed a penalty of one year in prison, three of disqualification and a fine of 10,000 euros for crimes of bribery and embezzlement of public funds; Manuel Gregorio Reina Fabre two years and six months in prison, six and a half of disqualification and a fine of 4,000 euros; and Jesús Manuel Martín Brito one year and three months in prison, three of disqualification and a fine of 50,000 euros for the same crimes.
For his part, Samuel Lemes, who was not accused of bribery, is convicted of embezzlement, fraud and document forgery to one year and six months in prison and three of disqualification. In addition, all of them will have to return to the City Council the amounts that each one unduly charged.
Fines for two other confessed convicts
Finally, the sentence also condemns the former head of the Technical Office of Arrecife, Rafael Arrocha - who is currently also in prison for a previous conviction - for a crime of revealing reserved information to the penalty he accepted during the trial when confessing the facts, which implies a fine of 2,160 euros, as well as one year of disqualification.
As for the engineer Antonio Cárdenas, during the trial he also recognized a crime of taking advantage of reserved information and accepted a penalty of 4,225 euros fine, "with responsibility in case of non-payment of 20 days in prison", which is the one imposed by the sentence.
On the contrary, in the case of the person in charge of Contracting of Arrecife when the events occurred, Elena Martín, the sentence considers that the crimes of prevarication, revealing reserved information and fraud for which she was accused have not been proven, so it agrees to her free acquittal.
