The new trial of the Montecarlo case has started this Monday with the confession of the former auditor of the Arrecife City Council, Carlos Sáenz, who has acknowledged crimes of embezzlement and prevarication in the payments he authorized to the companies Inelcon and Señalcon, between 2008 and 2012. Both charged the Consistory 3.6 million euros during that period, of which more than 800,000 would correspond to inflated invoices and services not provided, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
Saenz had already confessed in the other two parts of the Montecarlo case that had gone to trial, as did the rest of the accused politicians and businessmen. However, in this one he has been the only one who has admitted the crimes, and both the businessman Carlos Lemes, as well as the accused public and technical officials, among whom are José Montelongo, Isabel Martinón, Víctor Sanginés, Eduardo Lasso, Alberto Juan Morales, Miguel Ángel Leal, José Nieves Caraballo, Penélope Tabares García and Isidro Hernández Fuentes, will defend their innocence during the trial, which will last until June.
In his confession, Sáenz has avoided directly implicating the rest of the accused, but the recognition that public money was embezzled will affect the defense of the rest, especially in the case of those who intervened more directly in the payments and collections.
He acknowledges that he authorized split invoices with a 22% surcharge
"Yes, they are true," Sáenz responded when asked about the facts attributed to him, adding that what he does not "agree with" is the sentence requested for him -from six years in prison-, which could be reduced on the last day of the trial, when the Prosecutor's Office presents its final conclusions.
Next, the prosecutor's interrogation focused on asking him to detail the administrative procedure until the payment of an invoice is authorized in the City Council, which in this case was breached in several aspects, and she also asked him about the splitting of payments. "It is prohibited. You cannot split a payment to avoid a contracting procedure," the former auditor responded, admitting that "in some cases" he signed authorizing the payment, knowing that the invoices had been split.
This, as he himself recalled, is done "to skip the procedure" and not put the award out to tender, since the law establishes a limit for direct award, which at that time was set at 18,000 euros for service contracts and 50,000 euros for works contracts.
"They came in a hurry. They were supposed to be urgent things," Sáenz justified, to explain why he authorized those payments. However, afterwards he did not want to specify who "rushed him," when the lawyer for the private prosecution asked him about it. "It could be a politician. Normally it was the technicians..." he responded. "But were they the accused?" the lawyer insisted. "And many more," he replied, adding later that "not necessarily them, but some yes."
The former auditor also admitted that "in some invoices" 22% more was "unduly" added to the amount, charging 16% for general expenses and 6% for industrial profit, as if they were works invoices, when they were for services, in which these concepts are not included.
In his statement, Sáenz also assured that he had no relationship with the businessman. Regarding whether the rest of the accused had it, he stated that he does not know. He also denied that the then Finance Councilor, José Montelongo, gave him instructions to include the invoices of Inelcon and Señalcon in a list that was taken to the Plenary for an extrajudicial recognition (which is the way to pay invoices that have not complied with the established procedure). "Nor would I have allowed it," Sáenz added, who in other cases has confessed to having acted in collusion with other public officials, and even acknowledged having received bribes.
In addition to three previous parts of the Montecarlo case -one focused on San Bartolomé, another in Arrecife and one more in the majorero City Council of La Oliva, where he was also an auditor- Sáenz was also convicted in the Unión case, and is currently serving a sentence, although he has arrived at the hearing on his own means, so he could be enjoying a prison permit. For the rest of the sessions, he has asked not to be present, and the Chamber has authorized it.
The beginning of the trial
The trial, which is held in Arrecife before the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court, has begun with the presentation of the preliminary issues by the defenses, and all -except that of Carlos Sáenz- have invoked alleged grounds for nullity, alleging that the right of defense was violated during the investigation. However, both the prosecutor and the private prosecution and the private prosecution, exercised by the Arrecife City Council, have recalled that these same arguments were already raised when appealing the order that ended the investigation, and were rejected first by the Court and then by the Provincial Court.
As for the accused, finally there are 11 and not 12 who have sat on the bench. And it is that José Antonio Cabrera Moreno, who worked as an electrician in the City Council, has not been present, since it has been proven that he currently suffers from Alzheimer's and cannot be judged.
Nor could another of the investigated during the procedure, the former PP mayor Cándido Reguera, be tried, since he died during the investigation. Reguera held the Mayor's Office during the years that are being investigated, first in an agreement with the PIL and the PNL, after the outbreak of the Unión case and the motion of censure against the PSOE, and later, after the elections, in alliance with the socialists, with José Montelongo as deputy mayor and finance councilor.
The indictment maintains that Inelcon and Señalcon received more than 3.6 million euros from the City Council in just over four years, including payments for services not provided and inflated invoices. "A minimum of 757,675.34 euros (Inelcon) and 84,119.55 euros (Señalcon) correspond to services not provided," the Prosecutor's Office specifies. In addition, it concludes that contracts were illegally split in order to make the awards without putting them out to tender.
Among the dozens of invoices analyzed by the Prosecutor's Office, there are services from electricity for different events and interventions in parks, in signage and traffic lights in the city, to the hiring of batucadas and the organization of "face painting workshops, carnival mask workshops, balloon twisting and animated Minnie and Mickey dolls during the children's Carnival event" of 2011.