The investigation of the Reyes case, which has just come to an end, has not only found alleged crimes of urban corruption. In the latest writing of the Prosecutor's Office, which La Voz has had access to, various payments made by the Yaiza City Council for the benefit of the former mayor himself, José Francisco Reyes, and also his party, the PNL, are also denounced.
According to the writing of the Public Prosecutor, Reyes "ordered between 2004 and 2007 the payment of at least 3,477.98 euros charged to the municipal accounts to the current account owned by the Nationalist Party of Lanzarote", of which the former mayor "was authorized", "in order to obtain funds for the political party to which he belonged and in which he held the position of vice president". And all this, "knowing that the payment of said amounts lacked any justification".
In addition, the investigation carried out by the Prosecutor's Office and the Udyco of the Judicial Police has also found awards of municipal contracts to a commercial company owned by Reyes himself and linked to the PNL. In this regard, the writing of the Public Prosecutor cites two cases, in which sums of 2,400 euros were paid each month between 2006 and 2007.
Managed by Pedro de Armas
The first of these contracts, in concept of advertising, was signed with the company Comcaype, of which the Secretary of Organization of the PNL, Pedro de Armas, was the sole administrator for a time, and later another party militant, and in which José Francisco Reyes also had shares. Specifically, 167 shares, acquired "for an amount of 1,003.69 euros in cash".
Comcaype, which was dissolved in 2011, and of which the president of the PNL, Juan Carlos Becerra, Pedro de Armas and Reyes himself have been identified as partners, was dedicated to "real estate activities, construction, tourist activities, constitution and management of owners' associations and investment management", but also acquired at the time a communication company, publisher of an island magazine.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, "knowing that due to his position he could not intervene in the award and the legal duty of abstention that concurred in that case", Reyes signed that advertising contract with Comcaype "in concept of coverage of institutional events", for an amount of 2,400 per month, "with the manifest purpose of ensuring for himself and his partners the award of said service and the consequent enrichment".
A year later, in 2007, José Francisco Reyes signed another contract on behalf of the City Council, "under identical conditions", with a radio station that was also linked at that time to members of the PNL, Punto Radio.
"Private" expenses paid by the City Council
In addition, the Prosecutor's Office maintains in its writing that there are also "clear indications of the subtraction of public funds" linked to expenses and travel allowances charged by José Francisco Reyes to the City Council of Yaiza during his years at the head of the Mayor's Office. Among them, the investigation maintains that Reyes presented a false invoice to the City Council "on the occasion of a private stay in Tenerife on the night of February 14, 2007".
According to the writing of the Public Prosecutor, that case would not be the only one. "During the years in the Mayor's Office, from 1996 to 2007, the defendant José Francisco Reyes, with the intention of profiting illicitly and with the essential collaboration of the Comptroller of the City Council, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, for that purpose, as the maximum controller of the municipal accounts, ordered the payment charged to the coffers of the Consistory of various amounts derived from trips, allowances and other undue concepts, knowing that they were expenses of a strictly private nature, which were transferred to him from the account owned by the City Council to the current account of which he was the owner together with his wife, or the payment by settlement of allowances at least 2,734.43 euros higher than those established in the bases of execution of the budget", the Prosecutor's Office maintains.
To all this, we should add the alleged bribes that the former mayor received for the granting of illegal licenses, within the crimes of urban corruption that gave rise to this investigation and on which the case revolves. In total, the Udyco has managed to locate an "illicit enrichment" of at least one million euros, which was allegedly laundered by Reyes, his wife and three of his children, with the collaboration of four other people who are also charged in the case.
In addition, the investigation allowed to discover other alleged gifts received by the former mayor, such as the free mooring of the family yacht in Marina Rubicón, a port that the case maintains is illegal; the free transfer of a rented apartment to one of Reyes' daughters; or the works that a developer (who in turn received multiple awards of works from the Yaiza City Council) carried out in the house of José Francisco Reyes, without ever charging for it, despite the fact that the works were valued at about 60,000 euros.
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