The Arrecife City Council not only faces a multi-million dollar payment for the Ginory land, but must also face the fees now claimed by the lawyer who lost that lawsuit, Felipe Fernández Camero. The lawyer, who is currently awaiting trial accused of embezzling public funds from Arrecife when he was municipal secretary, intends to collect more than a quarter of a million euros from the City Council for having been its lawyer in this procedure.
Fernández Camero also initiated this claim through judicial channels and went directly to the Court where the Ginory lawsuit was resolved, so that it would order the institution to proceed with the payment. In the invoice he presented, Fernández Camero sets his fees at 146,912 euros for the first instance and 112,455 for the subsequent "incident of execution of sentence", which, adding the IGIC, totals 277,523 euros. And he also intends to add interest to this, which has been estimated at about 10,000 euros more.
The contract for which this payment is claimed dates back to 2011, when the final stretch of this litigation began, which has ended up being one of the biggest economic burdens faced by the Arrecife City Council, given that it will involve the payment of more than 30 million euros to the plaintiffs. In addition, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands highlighted the serious omissions incurred in the defense of the City Council, which ended up seriously harming its interests.
The appraisal or the sentence was not appealed, nor was the ownership discussed
"The agreement of the Expropriation Jury setting the fair price was not appealed by the Municipal Corporation, nor was the sentence that declared it in accordance with the law, nor has it been subject to any review procedure and therefore it is a firm and consented act," the TSJC stated in a ruling issued in July 2016. To this must be added that in this dispute with the owners of the land, the ownership of the land was not discussed, when this point has been key in other lawsuits that the City Council has won against other developers, who claimed millionaire compensations for plots of land that they could not later prove to be the owners of.
In the case of the Ginory land, in addition, there are reports that indicate that a good part of that land would actually be public domain, because it is land reclaimed from the sea, where until a few years ago what there was was a sheet of water. However, having not raised this in the lawsuit or having appealed the appraisal, the City Council must pay more than 20 million euros for the land and another ten million in interest.
Now, to this is added these almost 300,000 euros that Felipe Fernández Camero claims for his "fees". The lawyer filed this claim for quantity at the end of last year and since then, the Court has already sent different requirements to the City Council to pay the amount, since it has not appealed it either.
Removed as secretary due to a "very serious" incompatibility
Felipe Fernández Camero was secretary of the Arrecife City Council until he had to leave the position after being disqualified in 2004 for a very serious offense, for holding positions in companies incompatible with the position of municipal secretary, and for another serious offense, for having continued to practice as a private lawyer without obtaining the compatibility of the Plenary.
However, the then mayor, María Isabel Déniz, re-hired him some time later as advisor to the City Council, and he has also been entrusted with lawsuits as a lawyer, the most controversial due to its result being this one of the Ginory land.
Currently, Fernández Camero is awaiting two trials, in which he is accused of embezzlement of public funds from both the Arrecife City Council and the Yaiza City Council, for which he also worked as a lawyer and alleged advisor under the Mayoralty of José Francisco Reyes, while at the same time he was hired by the businessmen who received illegal licenses in exchange for bribes, as the Yate case considered proven.
Awaiting two trials and accused of illicit association
Precisely one of the trials that Camero has pending arises from a piece that was separated from that case, focused on the payments he received from the Yaiza City Council. And it is that after having spent years denying being the "mastermind" of that plot of illegal licenses and after not finding a document on the advice he gave to the mayor, the Prosecutor's Office then went on to accuse him of embezzlement, for the money he had charged from the City Council for that concept.
In total, apart from other payments he received from Yaiza, the Public Prosecutor maintains that Fernández Camero received almost one million euros illegally, and asks for him six years in prison and 10 years of disqualification, in addition to the return to the City Council of the money allegedly embezzled.
Fernández Camero is also awaiting trial in the Unión case, for the stage in which he was secretary of the Arrecife City Council under the Mayoralty of María Isabel Déniz. In this case, the former secretary is not only accused of embezzlement but also of bribery and even of illicit association, that is, of having been part of an organized plot to commit crimes. In this case, the Prosecutor's Office asks for him 11 years and 6 months in prison, 18 years of disqualification and a fine of 38,183 euros, in addition to the confiscation of the money he received in alleged bribes in the form of gifts, such as a trip to Kenya paid by Urbaser for him and his partner. For its part, the Arrecife City Council itself, which is present as an accusation in that case, asks for Camero 16 years in prison.
