The investigation into alleged irregularities in the granting and justification of public subsidies of the governments of the Valencian Community and Catalonia to the communication companies administered by Francis Puig, brother of the president of the Generalitat, the socialist Ximo Puig, has acquired a new dimension after the statement before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of the former wife of another businessman in the sector, Enrique Juan Adell Bover, with intimate personal and business connections with Francis Puig, to the point that the declarant defines her as a "shadow partner" of the Adell.

The transcript of that statement, to which EL MUNDO has had access, reveals that, since 2006, almost a decade before Ximo Puig reached the Presidency , the Adell brothers, owners of producers like Kriol Produccions SL, already had a close personal and business relationship with Francis Puig, who is, according to the declarant, "who moves the whole issue of subsidies." And in acts he attended "it was already heard that when Ximo Puig won the elections they were going to line up."

The comment, corroborated in statements to THE WORLD by the complainant, appears contextualized. Quote «parties» organized by the Prisa Group in the days of the powerful Jesús Polanco , in which the Adell Bover, station managers associated with the Cadena Ser in Vinaroz and Vall d'Uixò, came into contact with Francis Puig and his family, administrators also from the radio station of Els Ports, in Morella, the hometown of Ximo Puig, who was also a journalist.

Between the companies of the Adell brothers and those managed by Francis Puig, they take over the radio and television space of the regions of Els Ports, the Maestrat and part of the province of Castellón through companies such as Kriol Produccions SL, Canal Maestrat -ambas owned by the Adell- and Mas Mut Produccions y Comunicacions dels Ports, owned by the brother of Puig. Recently the Adell have joined the management of the Castellón Television , owned by Jesús Ger, owner of Marina D'Or.

In a complaint filed by the PP, already judicialized and for which Francis Puig is summoned to testify, the president's brother is indicated for, allegedly, having irregularly justified subsidies for the promotion of the Valencian in the press granted by the Valencian Generalitat between 2015 and 2018.

I turn to the case of Francis Puig

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THE POLITICAL HELPS

Upon landing in the Valencian Government, in 2015, Compromís launched a subsidy plan for the promotion of the Valencian in areas such as the media, with 2.4 million annually from the Ministry of Education.

THE PP COMPLAINT

After three calls for granting aid, the PP filed a complaint for the allegedly irregular granting and justification of aid to the companies of Francis Puig, the brother of the president of the Valencian government.

THE INTERNAL COMPLAINT

In parallel to the complaint of the PP, the ex-wife of one of the partners in the shadow of Francis Puig went to the Prosecutor's Office, the Anti-Fraud Agency and the Generalitat itself to denounce a broader plot of producers in the region of origin of Puig .

Francis Puig, according to the complainant, "knew that the most important thing to obtain subsidies was the promotion of the Valencian and that to obtain them, it was enough to present a project, comply with the bases of the call that could be falsified ." And he gives as examples of alleged fraud committed by this conglomerate of companies having received subsidies for radio programs "that were made in Spanish" and for others "that said they were in Valencian, but not even made."

According to the complaint, the Adell looked unpunished: " They said that if they were presented with Francis (Puig) they were not going to put any problem on them ." And, for example, the program of 40 Principals of local broadcasters "was broadcast in 2017 from Madrid and, of course, was not in Valencian." He received 15,000 euros.

As EL MUNDO has published and it is stated in the PP complaint, these companies have presented payrolls of employees supposedly 100% dedicated to their work to the project subsidized by the General Directorate of Linguistic Policy of the Valencian Government and, at the same time, same justifications before the Presidency of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Among those payrolls are those of Francis Puig himself and those of his brother Jordi, the third in the Puig saga. Between 2015 and 2018, Mas Mut Produccions y Comunicacions dels Ports received 588,768 euros.

The more than 600 folios of documentation delivered by who was the wife of Enrique Juan Adell for 15 years, would not only prove that the companies of these brothers would have traced the modus operandi of Francis Puig to feed on public money, but that they relate to both groups, with crossed invoices, internal documents on transfers that would have served to justify expenses - sometimes "fictitious", sometimes "swollen" - before the Valencian and Catalan administrations. Proof of their relationship is the file that the regional television, À Punt, opened to these companies after hunting them by agreeing on prices for a contest to open correspondents in the area.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Valencian Community
  • Politics
  • Ximo Puig
  • PSOE
  • Corruption

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