Urbaser has dismissed the two company executives who admitted before the Las Palmas Court that they paid bribes to public officials of the Arrecife City Council between 2001 and 2004 to obtain the concession for the waste collection service in that city.
Company sources informed EFE this Friday that they put the case in the hands of their legal and "compliance" (regulatory compliance) departments as soon as they became aware that Manuel Andrés Martínez and Santiago Alonso Herreros had informed the Las Palmas Court in writing that they acknowledge being responsible for a crime of bribery, days before the trial of the so-called "Operación Jable" (April 17) began.
The two took that step in the context of a negotiation between their defenses and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which until their confession was requesting sentences of 10 years and two months in prison for both for crimes of bribery, document forgery, fraud, and exploitation of secrets.
Manuel Andrés Martínez was the Director of Urban Services of Urbaser and Santiago Alonso Herreros held an intermediate position, under the orders of the former.
In this criminal procedure, whose investigation has been delayed for 15 years, the Prosecutor's Office argues, among other things, that executives of the company Tecmed (later converted into Urbaser) bought the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Dimas Martín, who has been serving several sentences for corruption in prison for years, and the mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, as well as other local politicians and municipal officials.
These bribes, according to the prosecutor, served to ensure that Tecmed (later known as Urbaser) obtained the management of urban waste from the Arrecife City Council in 2002 in a rigged tender, which would allow the firm to earn 32.88 million euros.
The Prosecutor's Office assures that the Urbaser executives who are being prosecuted in this case spent a minimum of 300,000 euros on buying wills in Lanzarote, plus expenses in hotels, airplanes, luxury gifts, and a trip to Kenya.
The sources consulted by EFE have emphasized that the acts that Manuel Andrés Martínez and Santiago Alonso Herreros have now admitted to having committed (payment of bribes to obtain awards) are completely contrary to Urbaser's code of conduct and its corporate policy against corruption, which has determined their departure from the company.
In the trial, which is suspended until September due to health problems of the former mayor of Arrecife, two other people related to Urbaser when the events occurred are also in the dock: Stephane Jean Antoine Balverde and Francisco José Martínez Llerandi, for whom the Prosecutor's Office is requesting sentences of eight years and six years in prison, respectively.
The sources state that neither of them is currently part of the company's staff.
Urbaser dismisses the two executives who have admitted to paying bribes in Lanzarote
Company sources have reported that they put the case in the hands of their legal departments as soon as they became aware that Manuel Andrés Martínez and Santiago Alonso Herreros had confessed to the crime of bribery.
May 19 2023 (13:07 WEST)
Updated in
May 19 2023 (14:56 WEST)
