The Montecarlo case has just added five new defendants in one of the pieces, specifically the one that investigates payments to Inelcon. Judge Ricardo Fiestras Gil has decided to call four former councilors of the Arrecife City Council and a new technician to testify, for alleged crimes of embezzlement of public funds in the payment of invoices to this company for allegedly unperformed work.
The new defendants are former PNL councilor Isabel Martinón, former PP councilor Ángela Hernández, former socialist councilors Alberto Morales and Víctor Betancort, and technical architect Penélope Tabares. All of them will be summoned for next April to testify as "investigated", which is what defendants are now called.
The suspicious payments were made at least between 2008 and 2011, during which time three different government groups passed through the Arrecife City Council (the PSOE-PIL, the PP-PIL-PNL and the PP-PSOE). For this reason, new councilors who were in charge of the Finance area have been added, as well as former councilors from other departments from which the payment of invoices to this company was authorized.
Councilors from two legislatures ago
In the case of Isabel Martinón, she held the Finance Councilorship during part of the period under investigation in this case. Specifically, from December 2009 until the elections of May 2011. During that time, the PP, the PIL and the PNL governed together in Arrecife, after presenting a motion of censure against the socialist Enrique Pérez Parrilla, who had been left in the minority after expelling the PIL from the government group after the outbreak of Operation Unión.
As for the popular Ángela Hernández, she was in charge of the Traffic Councilorship during that same period, between December 2009 and May 2011. Her indictment would be related to a part of the payments to Inelcon related to her Councilorship. And it is that among other things, this company received important sums of money in that period for alleged repairs of traffic lights.
Regarding the two socialist councilors, they were part of the government group at the beginning of that same legislature, before the motion of censure. In the case of Alberto Morales, he was in charge of the Tourism Councilorship and would also have signed payments to Inelcon. For his part, Víctor Betancort occupied the Transport area. In addition, he took charge of the Finance Councilorship after the arrest of former PIL councilor José Miguel Rodríguez in Operation Unión.
A dozen defendants and two other open cases in Arrecife
In the order in which he orders these five citations, the judge points out that the decision arises from the new statements made in the Courts and from the documentation incorporated into the case. Within this same piece, last week a expert, general state auditor, and a technician from Arrecife, who is also charged in the case, testified. This is José Antonio Cabrera, who was responsible for the control of traffic lights when the suspicious payments were made.
This piece, which investigates invoices for hundreds of thousands of euros paid to Inelcon and Señalcon, thus adds a dozen defendants. Among them was the former PP mayor, Cándido Reguera, who died during the investigation. Also, along with other technicians and former councilors, the current mayor, José Montelongo, is charged, although for his time as finance councilor at the beginning of the last legislature, when he governed for a period together with Reguera.
In addition to this one, the Montecarlo case has two other open pieces in Arrecife and one more in San Bartolomé, although in this case it is already closed. In all of them, the auditor, Carlos Sáenz, who continues to hold this position in the capital, is charged. Both the San Bartolomé piece and one of the Arrecife pieces revolve around payments to José Vicente Montesinos' companies. As for the fourth piece, it focuses on the invoices paid by the capital City Council to Tunera Producciones.