INSTRUCTION OF A MONTE CARLO PIECE CONCLUDED, FOR 470,000 EUROS "STOLEN" FROM SAN BARTOLOMÉ

Instruction of a Monte Carlo piece concluded, for 470,000 euros "stolen" from San Bartolomé

The judge sees rational indications of a crime to bring five people to trial: former mayor Miguel Martín, auditor Carlos Sáenz, treasurer of San Bartolomé, former councilor Javier Betancort, and businessman José Montesinos. He has given 20 days to present the indictments?

December 17 2015 (16:05 WET)
The investigation of a Monte Carlo case, for 470,000 euros stolen from San Bartolomé, has concluded.
The investigation of a Monte Carlo case, for 470,000 euros stolen from San Bartolomé, has concluded.

The Monte Carlo case has now closed its first piece. Specifically, the one that investigates the alleged looting of almost 470,000 euros from the San Bartolomé Town Hall, with payments for services supposedly not provided to two companies of José Vicente Montesinos and with improper collections by the auditor, Carlos Sáenz. Judge Ricardo Fiestras Gil has just concluded the investigation and has given 20 days to now present the indictments. In his order, in which he orders to initiate the procedure of abbreviated procedure, prior to the opening of oral trial, the magistrate maintains that there are sufficient indications to bring five people to the dock.

Among the defendants that the judge considers should go to trial is the auditor Carlos Sáenz, who is the main link between all the pieces of the Monte Carlo case. And it is that in addition to being auditor of Arrecife, Sáenz also held this position in San Bartolomé, when the events that are investigated in this piece occurred. Along with Sáenz, the judge also sees "rational indications" of crime in the actions of the treasurer of San Bartolomé, Luis Manuel Rodríguez Pérez; of the former mayor, Miguel Martín; and of the former Finance councilor, Javier Betancort, as well as the businessman José Vicente Montesinos. Both Montesinos and Javier Betancort are also charged along with Carlos Sáenz in another piece of Monte Carlo, in this case for payments from the Arrecife Town Hall.

The investigating judge points out that the five defendants in the San Bartolomé piece could have incurred in crimes of prevarication, fraud and/or embezzlement of public funds. In the case of Carlos Sáenz and Montesinos, he also considers that there are sufficient indications of an alleged crime of bribery and other crimes of documentary falsification. In addition, he points to the companies Progestril and Recingest SL, both owned by José Vicente Montesinos, as subsidiary civilly liable, so they would also have to respond for the return of the money to the Town Hall in case of conviction.

 

"A plan to steal public funds"


"In the year 2002, Carlos Sáenz Melero colluded with the defendant José Vicente Montesinos Ramírez to carry out the subtraction of public funds" from the San Bartolomé Town Hall, the investigating judge points out. For this, he maintains that they "devised a plan" that needed the "essential participation, voluntary and conscious", of other public officials and employees of the Town Hall, that is, of the other three defendants in the case.

Some of the invoices, 20 paid to the company Recingest and another one to Progestril, were paid without even a contract with the Town Hall and without it being recorded that the services have been provided. The others were based on two contracts with Progestril: one signed in May 2002 and another in September 2004, both for alleged consulting and advisory services related to the collection of municipal taxes and fees.

In both cases, the contracting was carried out after a negotiated procedure without publicity, for which three companies were invited. However, according to the judge, "the three companies invited by the mayor (Miguel Martín) were under the control and administration of the same businessman", José Vicente Montesinos, so he concludes that it was a "fraudulent and simulated contracting file".

 

He charged three times what the contract established


In his account of the facts, the investigating judge maintains that "not only is the provision of the service for which Montesinos charged not duly justified", but also the amounts he received greatly exceeded the amount established in the contracts, reaching three times that figure. For the first of these contracts, which lasted two years, the businessman in theory was going to receive 27,640 euros per year, that is, 55,280 in total. However, what he ended up charging was, "at least", 163,869 euros, which is the amount that has been accredited during the investigation.

As for the second contract, it started from a calculation of 30,050 euros of annual payment, although it was established that the final amount would be fixed based on the results (something that "violates the regulations on public procurement", according to the judge). Specifically, the businessman would receive 10 percent of the debt he discovered and 19 percent of what the Town Hall effectively collected. However, under that second contract, Montesinos ended up charging 135,998 euros, when for his "alleged collaboration with the Municipal Treasury only 44,015 euros were entered into the municipal coffers".

Even adding the percentage that would correspond to him for the debt supposedly discovered but not collected, which amounted to 477,916 euros, Montesinos should have received a maximum of 53,154 euros in total, according to the judge, compared to the almost 136,000 that the Town Hall paid him. In addition, he still intended to collect 46,079 euros more, based on another five invoices that he presented charged to that contract and that, according to the judge, had already been "recognized by the fraudulent action of the auditor". "They were not paid when the fraud was discovered by the new municipal officials", the order states. In addition, he recalls that the businessman continues to claim that amount in the courts, in administrative litigation, after the current mayor, María Dolores Corujo, and the current Finance councilor, Antonio Rocío, refused to pay those invoices.

 

Another 87,000 with invoices from another company without a contract


To the "illicit obtaining of funds" through these two contracts, are added the payments received by another company of Montesinos, Recingest SL. As revealed by the investigation, the invoices that were paid to that company "were not covered by any contracting file or any contract" with the San Bartolomé Town Hall.

Between March 2005 and May 2007, Montesinos charged "at least" 20 invoices in the name of Recingest, for a total amount of 87,000 euros, also for advisory services in tax, financial and budgetary matters. In addition, he presented another invoice for 3,000 euros in June 2007, but the new government group that entered the Town Hall that year stopped the payment. Like the 46,000 that he failed to collect for invoices from Progestril, the businessman has also claimed the payment of this invoice by initiating a lawsuit against the Town Hall.

In total, according to the judge, the five defendants would have contributed to defrauding the Town Hall almost 400,000 euros (307,440 with invoices from Progestril and 87,000 euros with invoices from Recingest), "knowing by all of them" that these payments "did not obey any service provided, but only to the subtraction of public money to the detriment of the municipality of San Bartolomé".

 

"Unfulfilled" duties and "deliberate" omissions


Regarding the participation of each of the defendants, the judge points out that the auditor "failed to comply with his most elementary supervisory obligations, by authorizing the payments without formulating any objection, despite the absence of accreditation of the service, its conformity with the contract and the illegality of the latter". In addition, he imputes other crimes for the payments that he himself received from the Town Hall, for his work as auditor, since he considers that they exceeded the legal maximum.

As for the treasurer, he points out that he "deliberately" did not conform the invoices (that is, he did not put his signature giving the approval), despite the fact that he was the maximum responsible for ensuring that they conformed to the service provided. And it is that this service depended directly on him, being the head of the municipal collection services. In addition, "with full knowledge of the illegality of the payments", as treasurer he was then in charge of making the transfer to the company to pay those invoices, knowing among other things that they did not carry the signature of any technician, since the technician who had to conform them was him.

Regarding the former mayor of Coalición Canaria, Miguel Martín, the judge points him out as responsible for the signing of those allegedly fraudulent contracts, but also for having ordered some of the payments. The others were authorized by the councilors who were in charge of Finance in that period. First Cándido Reguera (deceased while this case was being investigated) and then Javier Betancort, both militants then of the PP. According to the judge, Betancort had an "essential participation" in those fraudulent payments. "He ordered the payment of invoices knowing that they did not obey the provision of any service for the department he directed", the order states.

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