Homes, farms, vehicles and even part of his salary. That is the list of assets that the Court of Instruction 5 of Arrecife, in charge of the Union case, has ordered to seize from the former mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, and the historical leader of the PIL, Dimas Martín. Magistrate Silvia Muñoz imposed a bond of 1.8 million euros on Déniz when closing the instruction of the piece relating to the allegedly fraudulent awarding of contracts to Urbaser and the construction of the Argana pavilion, supposedly in exchange for commissions and gifts. Dimas Martín was imposed 240,000 euros. However, neither of them has covered those sums, so the Court has decided to seize various assets to "guarantee" that these amounts are covered.
Thus, in several decrees dated between May 24 and June 1, the Court establishes the seizure of these assets. In accordance with the bond imposed on her, the largest seizure is on the former mayor. Thus, while Dimas Martín has five rustic farms seized in Teguise, the seizure of Déniz ranges from a car and several houses to a part of her salary as a teacher.
María Isabel Déniz was notified on March 23 that she had 3 days to deposit nearly 1.8 million euros, to which she merely replied that "she was aware and did not want to say anything else." As of May 24, she had not covered that amount, so the Court decided in a first decree to seize a Honda motorcycle with a displacement of 125 and a Mercedes, in addition to half of a house of 188 square meters on Playa Honda Avenue and a warehouse-parking lot of 105 meters in Teguise whose ownership she shares with her husband.
After continuing to make "inquiries" about Déniz's "property" to "guarantee" that she complied with her "responsibilities", the Court expanded the list of seizures. Thus, to the house, the warehouse, the motorcycle and the car, are also added another house in Playa Honda, with 170 meters built and another 64 of "gardens and green areas", a "warehouse and a room" in La Graciosa of 180 meters, and a rustic farm of 12,000 square meters in the Montaña de Las Nieves, all of them also shared with her husband. Finally, the Court decreed that the "proportional part" of her salary as a secondary school teacher should be seized, depending on the limits that appear for this purpose in the Ministry of Education.
The former mayor is charged in that piece of the Union case with the crimes of bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, administrative prevarication, fraud against the administration, privileged information, document forgery and money laundering. According to the instruction of the case, while she was mayor, María Isabel Déniz would have received commissions, gifts and enjoyed trips, all paid for by Urbaser, which would even have been in charge of covering her monthly expenses for "clothing and hairdressing" (3,000 euros each month, according to the judge's order) or of paying the salary to the person in charge of cleaning her house.
The judge also determined that Déniz's husband and co-owner of some of those assets, José Domingo Abreut Cabrera, must appear "as a participant for lucrative purposes", for the "benefit he may have obtained from the effects derived from the action attributed to Mrs. María Isabel Déniz".
Dimas Martín assured that he "has no means" to pay
For his part, Dimas Martín was notified on the same day as Déniz, on March 23, that he had three days to deposit, in his case, 240,000 euros. However, he stated to the Court "that he has no means to provide the required bond", and he did not cover the amount requested.
Thus, by means of a decree dated this Wednesday, June 1, the Court of Instruction Number 5 decided to seize five rustic farms located in the municipality of Teguise and registered in his name. In total, the surface area of these lands adds up to more than 11,500 square meters.
The judge attributes to the founder of the PIL, in this piece of the Union case, the alleged crimes of bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, administrative prevarication, fraud against the administration and use of privileged information.
A "fraudulent" award, a rigged contest, trips and gifts
The instruction of this piece includes an alleged scheme of commissions around the garbage collection service of Arrecife and the construction of the Argana pavilion. The allegedly "fraudulent" awarding of that service to Urbaser is being investigated, the rigging of the public tender to achieve it (the head of the Technical Office, who is also accused, allegedly opened the envelopes of the other companies that submitted and gave the 'switch' to include an improved offer from Urbaser, after finding out what the rest offered) and the direct awarding of two construction contracts, which were also "alternative" and therefore it was enough to contract one of the options.
According to the judge's order that closed the instruction, there was a "concert of criminal wills" for the company Urbaser to be awarded the tender to manage the garbage service. Throughout the instruction, defendants such as Matías Curbelo confessed some of those 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 contract. To his confession is added 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 (which has also been 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 herself, her husband also participated.
