The Las Palmas Prosecutor's Office requested in the complaint that gave rise to the Montecarlo case the indictment of 16 people, including businessmen, technicians from the Arrecife City Council, councilors and former councilors. Some of these people have already been charged by Court number 4 of Arrecife, which is processing the case, and have testified, while others will have to testify soon. The accused councilors belong to four different parties: PIL, PSOE, PNL and PP. Thus, to the names that had transpired so far, we must add those of councilor Emilia Perdomo and those of former councilors Lorenzo Lemaur (PP), Eduardo Lasso (PIL) and Isabel Martinón (PNL).
The Prosecutor's Office complaint, signed by prosecutor Ignacio Stampa, in turn originated from another anonymous complaint and deals only with the Arrecife City Council, since the investigation of the San Bartolomé City Council, which has just had its secrecy lifted, originated as a result of the Arrecife one. The complaint explains in detail four different cases of payments to companies for inflated or unprovided services and in which the legal administrative procedure was not followed. They all have the comptroller Carlos Sáenz as a common link, who has been in pre-trial detention since May.
The first of these is the one referring to payments to three companies whose administrator is José Vicente Montesinos, also in pre-trial detention. These companies were commissioned to draft specifications and advisory work that the Prosecutor's Office considers were not carried out. These companies came to collect more than 200,000 euros in 16 invoices from 2008, all for less than 18,000 euros.
For this case, the Court charged the then finance councilor José Miguel Rodríguez (PIL), Carlos Sáenz, José Vicente Montesinos and Javier Betancort, who performed work for these companies, but the Prosecutor's Office also requests the indictment of the former finance councilor of the Lanzarote Nationalist Party (PNL), Isabel Martinón, for malfeasance and embezzlement, for authorizing the payments, and the advisor Ángel García Gijón, for embezzlement.
The second case has to do with the payment of invoices, for much lower amounts, to the company Gesineal, of which Betancort and the lawyer Federico Toledo are partners, both already charged by the Court. This company participated in the bidding to award various contracts by submitting specifications and invoicing amounts of between 2,000 and 4,200 euros. One of the invoices was for a contest for the installation of canopies, information supports and street furniture. In that case, the invoices were not signed by any technician from the corresponding area, but only by the councilor, and there is no record that the specifications were submitted. In addition, the payment was authorized on two occasions.
For these events, in addition to Toledo and Betancort, the former mayor Cándido Reguera (PP), Isabel Martinón and the former finance councilor and current deputy mayor José Montelongo (PSOE) are charged, for authorizing the payments, as well as the former transport councilor, Lorenzo Lemaur, for malfeasance and embezzlement.
Neighborhood Council
The third case has to do with the company Tunera Producciones and the Project to support the development of the actions and programs of the Neighborhood Council. Three invoices are being investigated: one of them for 63,000 euros signed by former mayor Reguera and technician Miguel Ángel Leal, former secretary of the PSOE of Arrecife and also charged in Operation Unión. According to the complaint, no contracting file was processed. The other two invoices are for almost 15,000 euros, which shows, according to the Prosecutor's Office, an alleged fraud to prevent them from being directly awarded when reaching the figure between the two of 29,450 euros.
These invoices were signed by councilors Emilia Perdomo (today expelled from the PIL) and Lorenzo Lemaur, without the signature of technicians, and payment was ordered by Montelongo and the comptroller. The complaint says that there was no resolution from the contracting body to contract this service and that no detailed report of the activities carried out was ever submitted, so there was no justification for paying these invoices. In addition, the Prosecutor's Office believes that no service was provided. The indictment of Carlos Sáenz, Isabel Martinón, Cándido Reguera, Lemanur, Emilia Perdomo, Miguel Ángel Leal, and the businessman, owner of Tunera Producciones, Eduardo Ferrer, also charged in the Unión case, is requested.
INELCON
Finally, the fourth case has to do with the invoicing of the entities Inelcon and Señalcon, both owned by the businessman Carlos Lemes, who is requested to be charged with a crime of embezzlement of public funds. In this case, there is also talk of splitting invoices and inflating prices and of passing off services as works, applying irregular amounts. In addition to some of the above, the indictment of the former PIL councilor, Eduardo Lasso, and the festivals technician, José Nieves Caraballo, is requested.
SG-ACN
