Pedro de Armas' family business earned 800,000 euros "in a moment" and without even leaving the notary's office, buying and selling on the same day a plot in the Playa Blanca Partial Plan, declared illegal by the Justice. This is according to the police investigation that has been tracking the assets and businesses of the PNL-Nueva Canarias councilor in Arrecife and former CEO of Gesplán for two years, within the criminal case opened against him for alleged money laundering.
In this operation, which is just one of those being investigated, both the Prosecutor's Office and the Provincial Court see indications of possible crimes, especially due to the relationship that De Armas had with the then mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes.
The report from the Unit against Economic and Fiscal Crime (Udef) states that the company Xinxol SL had been trying to build on two plots it owned in Playa Blanca for almost two decades, since 1989, without the City Council authorizing it. Finally, in the year 2005, it sold the two properties, with Pedro de Armas as "intermediary". And even before officially owning the land, the new owner had already obtained a license from the City Council, then governed by José Francisco Reyes, who was a party colleague of De Armas, with whom he also shared "businesses" and "personal ties".
The two plots (R8.C and R17.A) were acquired on September 19, 2005 by Pedro de Armas' family business, Marivista, which on the same day sold one of them (R8.C) to another company, Villas Blancas Lanzarote SL. And with the sale, it pocketed 800,000 euros in a single day. In reality, "in a moment", according to the Prosecutor's Office. And it is that according to the police report, Marivista, Xinxol and Villas Blancas went that day "together to the same notary's office" to carry out the operation.
Before his "intermediation", building "had been impossible"
In the order in which it orders to continue the investigation of the case, the Provincial Court highlights that Pedro de Armas not only obtained "significant economic benefits in a single day, of almost one million euros", but also that the operation saw "affected land in which, prior to his participation in the intermediation tasks, the execution of works had been impossible, the licenses being granted after his acquisition of the properties, and the licenses granted in their day being finally annulled by the Contentious Court".
In addition, the Court adds that "it is surprising that someone who is not even the owner of the property that Pedro de Armas' company bought and sold on the same day, obtains a building permit even before verifying the sale".
Reyes' licenses to his partner and associate
As for the other plot that Marivista bought from Xinxol SL, R17.A, it was not resold that same day, but eight months later, also to Villas Blancas. Before, Pedro de Armas' own company, as the owner of the land, obtained construction licenses that had been denied to the previous owner until that moment. Specifically, Reyes granted a license to build 10 single-family homes on that plot to his party colleague on November 14, 2005, and only eight days later authorized the movement of land in the area. Furthermore, despite having a court order to inform the Cabildo of the licenses he granted, Reyes hid those licenses from the first institution, thus preventing it from appealing them in the Courts.
Finally, the Justice ended up declaring both these permits and those granted to Villas Blancas on the other plot, R8.C, illegal. Currently, the Investigating Court Number 5 there is an open criminal case (one of those pending against the former mayor of Yaiza), in which Reyes, the City Council secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, and the head of the Technical Office, Antonio Lorenzo, are charged with a crime against land planning, for the granting of those licenses to Pedro de Armas.
By reselling the second plot eight months after buying it, already with the construction license, De Armas' company obtained a new profit of 136,900 euros. And all this, in a Partial Plan that the Cabildo had already warned was extinct and, therefore, its construction could not be authorized, as later ratified by the courts of Justice.
"Expectations that are curiously fulfilled"
Regarding the other plot that Marivista bought and sold on the same day, receiving 800,000 euros more than what it had paid, the Prosecutor's Office draws attention to the fact that when it paid that price for the land, "Villas Blancas had very good expectations, despite the fact that Xinxol did not obtain a license. Expectations that are curiously fulfilled when the developer changes, who has consummated its urban development by building on the plot while the City Council hides the license from the Cabildo so that it cannot appeal it or at least gives it enough time to do so".
The Provincial Court pronounces itself in the same line, which in its order points out that Pedro de Armas, "in addition to holding public office over time, turns out to have a personal relationship with the mayor who finally grants the license, and also obtains, for that one-day intermediation, benefits that seem extraordinary to us for a job that in the end seems to have yielded few fruits, given the declared nullity of the license in question". "And also repeatedly", he adds, referring to what also happened with plot R17 A, sold by Pedro de Armas' company after personally obtaining the licenses.
In addition to being charged for the granting of those licenses to Pedro de Armas, José Francisco Reyes already has a conviction behind him for urban planning prevarication and several pending cases. In the most important one, focused on the massive granting of illegal licenses for years in Playa Blanca, the Prosecutor's Office is asking for 25 years in prison for urban planning prevarication, bribery, embezzlement and money laundering, for an amount "greater than 1.3 million euros".
During the time in which those licenses were granted, Pedro de Armas and Reyes shared a political party and companies. Furthermore, De Armas' name has appeared in some of the proceedings that are being followed against the former mayor. In one of them, for the macro license that he granted to Luis Lleó for the Costa Roja residential, also declared illegal, the architect of that project declared that an illegal commission of 3 million euros had been paid and assured that Pedro de Armas was the alleged "intermediary" between Reyes and Lleó.
With the businessman Luis Lleó, who in turn is one of the main defendants in the "Unión" case, De Armas has also shared commercial operations of buying and selling properties, according to the Udef in its report, which are currently also under suspicion.
