The businessman Luis Lleó, one of the main defendants in the Unión case, will also have to face another trial, this time related to alleged economic crimes in the management of one of his companies. The case was opened in 2008 after a complaint filed by two of his partners and the Prosecutor's Office has just filed the indictment, in which it asks for four years in prison for a continued crime of unfair administration.
In the indictment, the prosecutor Miguel Ángel Hernández González, belonging to the Prosecutor's Office for economic crimes of Las Palmas, argues that Lleó was the one who managed the family company and who "made all the economic decisions", and "took advantage of this circumstance, abusing it", "to finance other companies in which he had some participation", thus causing an "economic damage" to Consultores y Asesores Legales Lleó S.L.
In addition to four years in prison, the prosecutor also asks that Luis Lleó compensate the family business with the amount of 70,449 euros. Thus, he concludes the investigation of this case and asks the Court of First Instance Number 4 of Arrecife to issue the opening of oral trial to take the businessman to the dock.
Liquidity to transfer funds to other companies
The events began in 2007, when Luis Lleó "urged" one of his partners to sign a discount policy with Bancaja on behalf of Consultores y Asesores Legales Lleó S.L. for an amount of 104,000 euros. Shortly after, Luis Lleó himself signed another discount policy on behalf of the company, for an amount of 600,000 euros. With this, he obtained liquidity, later diverting the money to other companies managed by him.
A discount policy works as a kind of loan and allows you to obtain in advance, for example, the amount of a promissory note with a later due date. Thus, after signing these policies, Luis Lleó issued up to 11 promissory notes through other companies that he managed, so that they could be collected by Consultores y Asesores Legales Lleó S.L. thanks to these discount policies.
Once the money entered the accounts of the family business, Luis Lleó had these funds, transferring them in turn to other companies (in some cases, the same one that had issued the promissory note). In total, he moved almost 1.8 million euros in this way, generating expenses to the family business with an operation from which he did not obtain any benefit.
Must return bank charges and part of the diverted money
Given that 8 of the promissory notes collected by Consultores y Asesores Legales Lleó S.L. did not correspond to services rendered, the prosecutor points out that the damage was not caused by later diverting the money to other companies, but by the bank charges generated in this operation. In total, the family business faced expenses of 44,444 euros for collecting these promissory notes in advance through the discount policy.
In addition, of the other three promissory notes that did correspond to services rendered, and which amounted to a total of 387,146 euros, Luis Lleó also made use of a part, diverting it to "different companies in which only he had some participation". Thus, he transferred 18,000 euros to Residencial Playa Honda S.L. and 8,000 euros to Inversiones Tenderete S.L.
For this reason, the Prosecutor's Office asks that Lleó return both those 26,000 euros and the 44,440 euros that the company had to pay for bank charges for an operation in which it did not obtain any benefit.
This trial will be added to the one that Luis Lleó still has pending in the Unión case, for the alleged attempted bribery of Carlos Espino to unblock the construction of the Costa Roja plot. In that piece, which is also ready to go to trial, the Prosecutor's Office asks for six years in prison. The other defendant, Fernando Becerra, has acknowledged that he acted as an intermediary in that attempted bribery and has accepted the sentence that the prosecutor is asking for him, of a year and a half in prison.
