The head of the Court of Instruction Number 4 of Arrecife, Ricardo Fiestras, has ordered another piece of the Montecarlo case to be brought to trial, which will have eleven defendants in the dock. Among them is the former mayor of Arrecife, José Montelongo, along with other former councilors and technicians from the City Council. This piece, which is the first linked to the Arrecife City Council on which an oral trial is opened, focuses on the allegedly fraudulent payments made to the company Tunera Producciones, owned by businessman Eduardo Ferrer.
The magistrate's order is signed on March 13, although it has been notified to the parties this week, coinciding precisely with the celebration of another trial in the Montecarlo case, focused on the San Bartolomé City Council. In this first trial, all the defendants have confessed to the crimes and have accepted the penalties requested by the Prosecutor's Office, so the hearing has not even been held.
Now, the Provincial Court must set a date to judge the new piece on which an oral trial has been opened. The former auditor, Carlos Sáenz, is again accused in it, who is currently serving another prison sentence and has already confessed in two pieces of Montecarlo - the one in San Bartolomé and the one in Fuerteventura - and in another one of the Unión case; the former PSOE mayor José Montelongo, who currently militates in the Socialist Group for Lanzarote and who is also accused in another piece of this same case-; the former councilors Eduardo Lasso (PIL), Isabel Martinón (PNL), Víctor Sanginés (PSOE) and Lorenzo Lemaur (PP); the municipal workers José Nieves Caraballo, Miguel Ángel Leal, Blas Antonio Cedrés and Francisco Hernández Betancort; and the businessman Eduardo Ferrer.
The former PP mayor Cándido Reguera was also accused along with them, although he died during the investigation. As for Montelongo, he is accused for his time as Finance Councilor, when he governed with the Popular Party.
Penalties of between three and six years in prison
The eleven defendants are charged with crimes of embezzlement of public funds, fraud against the administration and administrative prevarication, in addition to some of them also being charged with documentary falsification. The Prosecutor's Office is asking for penalties of between three and six years in prison, in addition to the payment of fines and the payment of civil liability, which would imply the return to the City Council of the allegedly embezzled money.
In order for them to respond for these sums in case of conviction, the magistrate has again imposed bonds on all the defendants, although he had already done so when issuing the order that put an end to the investigation of this case almost three years ago. Thus, he reiterates the request for these bonds, although reducing them in the case of Carlos Sáenz and Eduardo Ferrer, after the Court partially upheld an appeal they filed against that order of 2016.
Now, the judge demands that the former auditor and the businessman deposit 521,825 euros each, while Miguel Ángel Leal is required to pay 104,617 euros, Lorenzo Lemaur 41,229, José Nieves Caraballo 36,346, José Montelongo 36,346, Eduardo Lasso the same amount, 36,346 euros, and Blas Cedrés 20,615.
As for the penalties, the Prosecutor's Office requests the highest, of six years in prison, for Carlos Sáenz, as well as for Eduardo Ferrer. As for José Montelongo, Eduardo Lasso, José Nieves, Miguel Ángel Leal and Lorenzo Lemaur, he asks for four and a half years in prison, in addition to nine years of disqualification. Finally, he requests three years and four months in prison and six years of disqualification for Blas Cedrés and three years in prison and nine years of disqualification for Isabel Martinón, Víctor San Ginés and Francisco Hernández Betancort.
Payments for services allegedly not provided
The indictment, presented more than three years ago by prosecutor Ignacio Stampa, argues that the auditor "colluded" with the owner of Tunera Producciones so that he could obtain public funds from the City Council illegally. According to the Prosecutor's Office, this "required the participation of other public officials and employees who in each department had to assume the theoretical and legal control of the contracting and execution of the alleged invoiced services, in order to give an appearance of legality to the entire framework and justify the invoicing and therefore the payments".
In this way, the Public Prosecutor's Office maintains that public funds were paid "for services that were never provided". In addition, it also adds the existence of others that did take place but were awarded "directly, verbally and without a contracting file", with "gross violation of the tenders that govern the contracting of public administrations".
Thus, it considers that the invoicing was divided to "create the appearance of legality of the alleged services provided and linked to the municipal areas of Festivities or Culture", which "were paid by the City Council knowing of their illegality, in amounts whose determination only depended on the whim of the supplier and those responsible for the custody of public funds, without it being recorded that the municipal officials accredited compliance with the services in the terms that were invoiced, and without any obstacle being placed on the payment of the amounts claimed by the company".
In the latter case, the contracts were linked to the organization of events, including the Alejandro Sanz concert, whose organization was entrusted to this company, paying them 290,220 euros, as well as the concerts of the Malpaís Festival of 2009 and 2010, for more than 600,000 euros in total, and other events of the Carnival and other festivals of the municipality. In addition, the same company was also awarded a "project to support the development of the actions and programs of the Department of Neighborhoods of the Arrecife City Council", which according to the Prosecutor's Office was never executed, and for which it charged almost 100,000 euros.
