The Second Section of the Provincial Court has agreed to postpone the trial that was to be held this Wednesday against the former PP councilor in San Bartolomé, Pedro Reyes, against the former auditor Carlos Sáenz and against the businessman José Daniel Hernández, thus accepting the request made by one of the defenses. The reason is the death of a close relative of one of the lawyers, so a new date has been set for next November 18.
The case focuses on the fraudulent payment of almost 600,000 euros between 2004 and 2007 to this businessman, who was already convicted in a piece of the Unión case for practically identical events that occurred in Arrecife, having charged a quarter of a million euros from the capital's City Council for alleged services that he had not actually provided. In that trial, José Daniel Hernández already shared the dock with Carlos Sáenz, who was an auditor in both Arrecife and San Bartolomé and who also has other convictions behind him, the last ones dictated by conformity after he confessed to the facts.
In this new case, the Prosecutor's Office asks that the three defendants be convicted of crimes of prevarication, falsification of a commercial document, fraud and embezzlement of public funds. For both Sáenz and Pedro Reyes, he asks for six years in prison and ten years of disqualification, while for José Daniel Hernández he requests five years and six months in prison and nine years of disqualification.
"They created the appearance that services were going to be provided"
In its indictment, the Prosecutor's Office maintains that the three defendants agreed and "devised a plan that aimed at the arbitrary plundering of funds from the San Bartolomé City Council", so that José Daniel Hernández "obtained an illicit patrimonial enrichment." To do this, "they created the appearance that certain lighting and other electricity services were going to be provided in the municipality of San Bartolomé, knowing that on many occasions, such services were not going to be executed."
In total, Hernández came to collect 582,813 euros from the San Bartolomé City Council through one of his companies, Proyectos y Servicios de Lanzarote, "totally and absolutely disregarding the rules that regulated the public procurement procedure" and "under the guise of multiple files." In them, according to the Prosecutor's Office, "the fiction of direct award by minor contract was created", when the truth is that the amount prevented resorting to that procedure and forced it to be put out to tender.
In addition, of the 36 files that were processed, the Prosecutor's Office maintains that "at least in 13 of them the work was not carried out or the service object of the contract was not provided." In this way, it considers it proven that at least 155,061 euros were paid without the City Council obtaining any consideration, so that is the amount that it claims that the three defendants return jointly and severally to the City Council.
As for Pedro Reyes, he points out that he signed the conformity of 17 of those invoices as Councilor for Public Services, "despite having knowledge of their mendacity, assuming the expense and simulating that the contracting file was valid and that the service or work had been performed in the agreed conditions."
Another former PP councilor convicted in San Bartolomé
In addition to the convictions and trials that he still has pending in the Unión case for embezzling public funds from Arrecife, Carlos Sáenz had also been convicted for another looting in San Bartolomé, within the first piece of the Montecarlo case that has gone to trial. In that piece, another former PP councilor in the municipality, Javier Betancort, was also convicted, who, like the rest of the defendants, acknowledged the facts and accepted the penalty requested by the Prosecutor's Office, after reaching a conformity agreement.
That ruling, which is already final, sentenced the former auditor to three years in prison; two and a half years to the businessman José Vicente Montesinos and one year in prison to the treasurer, Luis Manuel Rodríguez, the former CC mayor, Miguel Martín, and the former Finance councilor for the PP, Javier Betancort, for authorizing payments for services not provided to Montesinos' companies.
In its proven facts, which were recognized by the defendants, the sentence indicates that between the five of them they contributed to embezzling a total of more than 470,000 euros between 2002 and 2012, each from the position they held in the City Council. In that case, another former PP councilor, Cándido Reguera, was also accused, who did not go to trial since he died during the investigation. Reguera was Finance councilor in San Bartolomé and later mayor of Arrecife, in a period for which he was also accused in other pieces of Montecarlo together with Carlos Sáenz and Javier Betancort.
