The Public Prosecutor's Office has already presented the first indictment in the Montecarlo case, in which it is asking for sentences of between 5 and 12 years in prison for five defendants. This piece, the first in which the investigation has been completed, focuses on the alleged embezzlement of 470,000 euros in the San Bartolomé Town Hall, both with payments for services not provided and for the "excessive" fees charged by the auditor, Carlos Sáenz, for his work in this municipality.
The prosecutor Ignacio Stampa is asking for the highest penalty for Sáenz, of 12 years in prison, for alleged continued crimes of bribery, embezzlement, malfeasance and falsification of a public document. In addition, he requests that he be disqualified for 22 years and pay a fine of 260,000 euros. He is claiming almost the same penalty for the businessman José Vicente Montesinos, who admitted to having given bribes to the auditor in exchange for him authorising the payment of his invoices. In total, Montesinos faces a request for 11 years and 11 months in prison, as well as a fine of 206,000 euros. In his case, the penalty is slightly lower as he is not a public official.
As for the other three defendants, the prosecutor considers them responsible for a crime of embezzlement and another of malfeasance. For the treasurer of San Bartolomé, Luis Manuel Rodríguez Pérez, he is asking for 5 years and 10 months in prison and absolute disqualification for ten years. Finally, for both the former mayor, Miguel Martín, and the former finance councillor, Javier Betancort, he is claiming 5 years and 9 months in prison and 10 years of absolute disqualification.
Return the "stolen" money
In his writ, presented just one day after the judge issued the order declaring the investigation of the case closed, the prosecutor Ignacio Stampa also asks that all the defendants be ordered to return to the San Bartolomé Town Hall the money allegedly "stolen". To this end, all should be jointly and severally liable for that payment, each according to their participation in the events.
In the case of Carlos Sáenz, he should be liable for the total amount paid by the Town Hall to Montesinos' companies (i.e. 394,441 euros) and also for the almost 75,000 euros that, according to the investigation, he unduly charged the Council, authorising the payments he received himself. The businessman himself and the treasurer, Luis Manuel Rodríguez, would also have to answer for the total amount paid to Montesinos.
For their part, the other two defendants should pay the proportional part of the payments authorised by each of them, as some invoices were signed by the former mayor and others by the former finance councillor. Thus, Miguel Martín must answer for 233,574 euros and Javier Betancort for 211,949. In some cases, both public officials intervened in the authorisation of the payment.
In his indictment, in which he requests the opening of oral proceedings before the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, the prosecutor also calls for precautionary measures to be adopted now, to ensure the payment of these amounts in the event of a conviction. To this end, he requests that different bonds be imposed depending on the amount for which each one should be liable. According to the Public Prosecutor's request, the bonds would range from 282,000 euros for Javier Betancort, to almost one million euros in the case of Carlos Sáenz, for whom he is claiming exactly 971,814 euros.
Both the auditor and José Vicente Montesinos and Javier Betancort are also charged in other parts of the Montecarlo case, related to the Arrecife Town Hall, whose investigation is still open. In addition, Sáenz and Montesinos are also accused in a parallel case opened in Fuerteventura, arising from the same investigation as the Montecarlo case. To this is added, in the case of the auditor, his involvement in the Unión case, where he is accused in two parts and in one of them he has already been tried and is awaiting sentencing.
"He devised a way to plunder public funds"
In his indictment, of almost 40 pages, the prosecutor makes an exhaustive account of the facts investigated in this case and the numerous documents and invoices analysed during the investigation. With all this, he concludes that since he took office as auditor in San Bartolomé in July 2001, Carlos Sáenz "devised a way to arbitrarily plunder the municipal public funds placed at his disposal". To this end, he used "the privileged position he held as fund auditor in that Corporation, carrying out without interruption until his arrest by court order on 22 May 2012, multiple actions aimed at obtaining large amounts of money, for himself and for third parties".
On the one hand, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the auditor "conspired" with the other four defendants to carry out the "unjustified payment of large amounts of public money to companies linked to José Vicente Montesinos". The prosecutor maintains that all the defendants participated "by common agreement, taking advantage of the public functions that each of them held". Thus, they tried to give "an appearance of legality" to these payments, awarding contracts in an allegedly "fraudulent" manner to Montesinos' companies. According to these contracts, the businessman was going to carry out alleged advisory services related to the collection of municipal taxes. Afterwards, they simulated "a fictitious provision" of these services, to justify the payment of the invoices.
According to the prosecutor, "the entire criminal action of the defendants had as an essential pillar on which to base the conscious, premeditated, gross and constant breach by the defendant Carlos Francisco Sáenz Melero of his supervisory obligations", "to the detriment of the patrimonial interests of said Consistory".
Sáenz charged more than 110,000 euros per year only from Arrecife and San Bartolomé
On the other hand, the prosecutor maintains that Sáenz also carried out other "criminal activities" acting alone, "by directly and fraudulently awarding himself undue amounts in respect of his own remuneration for the exercise of his office". Carlos Saénz was working as auditor of San Bartolomé by accumulation of functions, as his main post is in Arrecife. This means that in San Bartolomé he could charge a maximum of 30 percent of his salary in the capital's Town Hall. Thus, given that he received an average of around 80,000 euros per year from Arrecife, his remuneration in San Bartolomé should have been around 24,000 euros.
However, most years he awarded himself payments worth more than 30,000 and even almost 40,000 one of the years. According to the prosecutor, since taking office Sáenz "ordered the staff of the department under his direction that no payroll should ever be issued referring to him". Thus, instead of receiving a payroll as an employee of the Town Hall, he received his remuneration through payment orders issued in his favour, "as if it were an external consultancy and assistance service that he provided to the Municipal Corporation". And according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, in this way "he fraudulently increased the amount of the remuneration that legally corresponded to him, taking advantage of the fact that it was up to him to supervise and authorise the payment of these expenses".
During the years under investigation, Sáenz received an annual income of up to 120,000 euros only for his work in Arrecife and San Bartolomé. In addition, to this figure must be added what he received from other councils where he worked as an accumulated auditor, such as the Town Hall of Teguise or, for a period, the majorero council of La Oliva.
