The Fourth Criminal Section of the National Court has agreed with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and has reopened the piece derived from the 3% case in which it investigated the donations of small amounts (mostly 3,000 euros) made by high-ranking officials of the Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) to the training, presumably to whitewash them, what is known as ‘smurfing’.
Judge Santiago Pedraz archived the piece last June when he considered that the explanations of the high charges brought against him had not been distorted during the investigation. All of them assured that their donations responded to extraordinary contributions that were requested by CDC in their capacity as militants and, in particular, in response to the public position or institutional responsibility that they had, to make facing treasury problems that was going through training then.
The court affirms that the prosecutor’s appeal is “amenable”, since “the existence of indications of possible illegal financing by CDC” obliges “to continue the investigation” through the request for the reports that the prosecutor considers essential. assigned to the case, Jose Grinda. The representative of the public ministry appealed the file in a writing, in which he requested the extension of the proceedings, whose training was due to end in Julyuntil determining whether the income made by these politicians served to launder money illegally obtained from businessmen who wanted to benefit from public tenders.
Anti-corruption considered necessary request more banking information about deposits carried out by the high-ranking CDC officials accused, for which they were based on reports from the Civil Guard and the Mossos from 2019, as well as on the statements given by the party’s former treasurer. Daniel Osàcar and the training lawyer Francesc Sanchez. According to the prosecution, in the case there are indications of “genuine bribery behavior for the awarding of contracts through agencies dependent on the Generalitat, in such a way that Relevant people from the indicated party decisively influenced the Catalan administration to benefit the donor companies.“.
Superior coordination
The resource highlighted that all donations were for 3,000 euros – except in the case of one of Monserrat Candini, which was 9,000 – and that all occurred in a very few days between October and December between 2008 and 2010, which was understood to imply “the existence of superior coordination.” Furthermore, he explained that Sànchez declared in January 2020 in court that they could not be payments of party fees, because until 2014 those fees were not registered as donations for tax reasons.
“Not being fee payments, they cannot be payments or contributions from elected officials since these were made on a monthly basis.“insisted the prosecutor, who recalled that Sànchez declared before the judge that “it was not possible to demand a greater effort from these positions so that, while giving part of their salary, they made donations.
Hence, unlike the judge, the prosecutor considered that they should continue to be investigated for money laundering. Carles Flamerich, that he made two donations of 3,000 euros each, one in 2008 and another in 2010; Jordi Jane (four of 3,000 euros annually between 2008 and 2013), Marc Guerrero (one in 2009 and another in 2010), Victor Vila (three donations), Jordi Moltó (another three between 2008 and 2010), Pere Macias (four)Gloria Renom (three), Felipe Puig (three), Xavier Crespo (a), Monserrat Candini (one of 9,000 and three others of 3,000 each), Irene Rigau (two and Eduard Freixedes (three).
Financing and money laundering
The tax document described how all of them, immediately after making the alleged donation, made refunds for the same value or for lower amounts than those they had just delivered to CDC. To reinforce his suspicions, the prosecutor referred to the ruling in the Palau case, regarding the illegal financing of Convergència through Ferrovial, as well as the different pieces that have been separated from the 3% case, such as this one about the ‘smurfing’ ‘ or that of the alleged false invoices from the production company Triacomwhich is still in training.
Related news
According to Anticorruption, the party had “cash money from deliveries from businessmenwith which they carried out acts of bribery so that those responsible for CDC had a direct impact on the arbitrary awarding of tenders called by public organizations in favor of companies”.
He argued that This political formation systematically established a triple channel of financing outside of legality.: with the donations to entities affected by CDC, like its foundations; with simulation of services and agreements with companies who later benefited from public contracts, and from the cash payments of the high-ranking officials accused in this piece, whose reopening is requested.