Judge Silvia Muñoz has closed the investigation of one of the most important parts of the Unión case, focused on the awarding of the garbage contract to Urbaser, the awarding of the construction contract for the Argana Alta pavilion and the company Gamma Install S.A. The magistrate maintains the indictment of 17 people in this piece. Among them is the former mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, for whom she is requesting a bail of almost 1.8 million euros.
In that order, dated this Monday, the investigating judge also requests a bail of 1,032,000 euros for the former head of the Technical Office of Arrecife, Juan Rafael Arrocha, and 240,000 euros for the former president of the Party of Independents of Lanzarote, Dimas Martín. The judge gives the three of them a period of three business days to deposit those amounts. If they do not, the order establishes that the "asset investigation" be carried out and that the assets necessary to "cover said sum" be seized.
The order also includes the "provisional and partial dismissal" of the proceedings against Marco Aurelio Hernández Guerra and Miguel Ángel Leal. The magistrate considers that the "perpetration of the crimes" for which they were being investigated has not been "duly justified." Thus, of the 19 defendants in this piece, Muñoz finally closes it with 17. In addition to confirming these indictments, Judge Silvia Muñoz also points out that María Isabel Déniz's husband, José Domingo Abreut Cabrera, must appear "as a participant for lucrative purposes", for the "benefit that he may have obtained from the effects derived from the action attributed to Mrs. María Isabel Déniz."
Specifically, the judge orders to continue the abbreviated procedure against the 17 defendants. This implies entering the final stretch to go to trial. Thus, it is now up to the Prosecutor's Office and the parties appearing in the procedure to present their indictments and request the opening of oral proceedings or, if they consider it appropriate, the dismissal of the case or the practice of complementary proceedings. To do this, the magistrate gives them 30 business days, thus deciding to extend the usual period "in view of the volume and complexity of the case."
The accused and the crimes they are accused of
Thus, Judge Silvia Muñoz's order lists the 17 people to whom she maintains the indictment and for what crimes:
Dimas Martín (founder of the PIL): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, administrative prevarication, fraud against the administration and use of privileged information.
María Isabel Déniz (mayor of Arrecife when the events occurred): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, administrative prevarication, fraud against the administration, privileged information, document forgery and money laundering.
Felipe Fernández Camero (secretary of the City Council in the period of the events attributed to him): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, administrative prevarication, document forgery, disclosure of privileged information and fraud against the administration.
Juan Rafael Arrocha Arrocha (Head of the Technical Office): for crimes against the Public Administration in its forms of administrative prevarication, influence peddling, bribery, crime of illegal exactions, disclosure of privileged information and fraud against the administration, activities prohibited to public officials and document forgery
Matías Curbelo Luzardo (member of the PIL and 'right-hand man' for years of Dimas Martín): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the administration and prevarication.
Francisco José Martínez Llerandi (director of Works and Conservation of Urbaser): crime of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Stephan Jean Antoine Balverde (manager of Urbaser): crime of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Jacinto Álvarez de la Fuente (employee and manager of Urbaser): crimes of bribery, administrative prevarication, influence peddling, illegal exactions, disclosure of privileged information and fraud against the administration and document forgery.
Santiago Alonso Herreros (director of Cleaning and Gardening of Urbaser): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Manuel Andrés Martínez (director of Urban Services of Urbaser): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Francisco Javier Armas López (administrator of FCC): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Manuel Jesús Isidro Spínola Perdomo (projects Gamma 3, Gamma Install S.L. and Infraestruturas Cascosa S.L.): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration, crime of activities prohibited to public officials and prevarication.
Julio Romero Ortega: for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Daniel Hernández Caraballo: for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Rafael Antonio Corujo Gil de Montes: for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Enrique Astorga González (FCC): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
Enrique José Hernández Martín (FCC): for crimes against the Public Administration of bribery, embezzlement and fraud against the Administration and prevarication.
"Fraudulent" award
This piece of the Unión case includes an alleged scheme of commissions around the garbage collection service of the city and the construction of the Argana pavilion. Thus, in this piece whose investigation the judge has just concluded, the supposedly "fraudulent" award to Urbaser, the alteration of the public tender and the direct award of two construction contracts are being investigated.
According to the order, there was a "concert of criminal wills" for the company to be awarded the tender. Throughout the investigation, defendants such as Matías Curbelo have confessed to some of these payments. The one who was Dimas Martín's right-hand man confessed that he had personally received a bribe from Urbaser, of "between 25 and 50 million pesetas", which was supposedly going to be "distributed" between Dimas and María Isabel Déniz, in exchange for the awarding of the garbage collection and cleaning contract in Arrecife. His confession is added to that of other defendants in this piece, such as that of the former manager of Urbaser in Lanzarote, Jacinto Álvarez.
Also part of this piece is the trip that María Isabel Déniz made to Marrakech with eight members of her family and that was paid for by FCC. The order defines that trip as a "gift" of "gratification" to the former mayor for the awarding to this company of the works to build the municipal pavilion of Argana that occurred on those dates (and that is currently closed for three years due to its numerous deficiencies). It was Dimas Martín himself who gave the Court the invoice for that trip, in which, among other members of Déniz's family and the former mayor herself, her husband participated.