The Prosecutor's Office has made public the indictment of the first piece of the "Unión" case, focused on the attempted bribery of the then-councilor Carlos Espino to unblock the construction of the Costa Roja plot. In his writing, prosecutor Javier Ródenas is asking for six years in prison for businessman Luis Lleó for a continued crime of bribery, and a year and a half for Fernando Becerra, who acted as an intermediary.
In this trial to be held with a jury, the Prosecutor's Office is asking for the maximum penalty for Lleó, while in the case of Fernando Becerra, it applies the "highly qualified circumstance of an analogue mitigating factor to that of collaboration with justice and confession".
According to the prosecutor in his writing, Fernando Becerra "has repeatedly confessed in all statements in police and judicial headquarters the facts under accusation and is actively collaborating" in these and other proceedings of the case, "providing important data for the clarification of the facts under criminal prosecution".
In addition to the prison sentences, the Prosecutor's Office is asking for a fine of one million euros and 10 years of disqualification from employment or public office for Lleó, and a fine of 200,000 euros and 10 years of disqualification for Fernando Becerra.
Offer of 600,000 euros
Throughout the indictment, the prosecutor reviews the chronology of Costa Roja, which began in 2006, with the granting of a license by José Francisco Reyes to build "a macro-urbanization of 1,012 homes, 220 commercial premises and 2,559 parking spaces". At that time, the Cabildo filed an administrative litigation appeal in the courts, which stopped the development of that project, and councilor Carlos Espino filed a criminal complaint for these events. His complaint gave rise to another case that is being followed in the Courts of Arrecife, and which has recently added new defendants.
To try to stop these judicial proceedings and unblock the construction of Costa Roja, Luis Lleó "designed a criminal strategy to win the will" of Espino, according to the prosecutor, knowing that at that time, "after the president" (Manuela Armas), he "was the person who had the greatest decision-making capacity in the government group of the Cabildo in matters of land management" and who "set the political and strategic direction" on that issue.
Thus, using Fernando Becerra as an intermediary, Lleó offered up to three alleged bribes to Espino, who reported the events and allowed the UCO to record the conversations they had for months. In the first, they offered him an alleged commission of 400,000 euros, to be divided between Espino and Fernando Becerra, in exchange for the Cabildo withdrawing from the litigation it had initiated against the Costa Roja license granted by Reyes.
In the second, the offer rose to 600,000 euros, and they asked him to include the Costa Roja land as developable land in the Special Territorial Plan for Insular Tourism Planning that was being developed at that time.
Regularize illegal hotels
Finally, Becerra conveyed a final proposal to Espino, which included not only the development of Costa Roja, but also the regularization of illegal hotels of other promoters. In this regard, the prosecutor points out that Lleó made Espino aware that there was "an agreement with the owners of illegal hotels to buy pieces of land in Costa Roja", which in turn "they would make available to the Cabildo free of charge", as alleged compensation for the legalization of their establishments. That is, "with the exception of the part of the land corresponding to the golf course and a residential area planned by Luis Lleó", which would have to be authorized.
In exchange, they promised Espino not only the 600,000 euros to be divided with Fernando Becerra, but also "a percentage of the price of each of the sales that Luis Lleó made to the owners of the illegal hotels in Yaiza".
In his indictment, the Prosecutor's Office also refers to the explanations that Fernando Becerra gave to Espino about how he could collect the bribe without leaving a trace. To do this, among other things, he proposed "opening an account in a tax haven, such as Switzerland, so as not to leave any trace of the delivery of the money".
