Courts. Ten years of the 'ERE case': this is how the scandal broke out that ended an era in the Andalusian PSOE
Sentence. Six years in prison for José Antonio Griñán and nine years of disqualification for Chaves
Seen for sentence.Fernández, in the second trial of the ERE: "I still believe in Justice"
The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office and the Junta de Andalucía maintain
differing positions
in the different pieces detached from the macrocause of corruption of the ERE on how to claim the money defrauded through budget item 31L, also known as the 'reptile fund'.
The November 2019 ruling of the First Section of the Seville Court, appealed to the Supreme Court, established in point 22 of the proven facts that the Junta de Andalucía, during the stage of the previous PSOE governments, had a total of
679.25 million
euros between 2000 and 2009 in budgetary credits to pay for social and labor aid and companies through fraudulent ERE.
But all that volume of fraud, how is it claimed in the different pieces separated by each of the aid to companies in crisis?
The strategies of the Prosecutor's Office and the Board differ entirely.
These differences have been evident during the second trial of the ERE that last Tuesday was seen for sentence.
In this oral hearing, the aid amounting to
2.9 million
euros granted in 2003 by the Andalusian Government to Olives and Preserves (
Acyco
) for 35 workers to
retire
early was
analyzed
.
So beneficial were the conditions of the irregular ERE funded by the Board that in the trial they even said that it was
"as if you won the lottery
.
"
The Anticorruption prosecutor requests the reimbursement of the 2.9 million euros because he considers that
all the aid
received by Acyco
was "illegal"
as there was no "procedure whatsoever."
It is the same strategy followed by the accusation exercised by the PP in the macrocause.
Instead, the Board, now governed by the PP and Citizens, only claims, as
civil liability
, the return of
530,000 euros
, corresponding to the early retirement policies of the
two intruders
sneaked into the ERE of Acyco;
the policy of
Encarnación Poto
, former president of the board of directors of the olive packing company;
and the expenses of the Garrigues law firm in the process.
The intruders were
Andrés Carrasco Muñoz
, a
churrero
in the Sevillian town of El Pedroso and a friend of the recently deceased Francisco Javier Guerrero, the general director of the Board who disposed of the funds from the ERE at will;
and the former socialist mayor of San Nicolás del Puerto
Domingo Martínez
, also deceased.
The injured
During the trial, the lawyer for the
Garrigues law firm
, in the process as a possible subsidiary civil liable for Acyco aid, complained that the Prosecutor's Office lacks "standing" to claim 3 million euros from them, when the "alleged injured party It is the Junta de Andalucía, it only asks for 530,000 euros.
For the lawyer,
the disparity of requests
is "incongruous"
and the Prosecutor's Office "cannot make an impersonation" of the Andalusian Administration.
In similar terms, the lawyer for the
company Dcoop
, which in its day absorbed Acyco, and who is also on trial as a possible subsidiary civil liable
, expressed himself
.
Dcoop's lawyer also stated that "it is not the
criminal jurisdiction
that has to rule on civil liability", when the Board has raised the claim for the amounts before the
Court of Accounts
.
The Board's maneuver
Precisely the issue of civil liability caused a huge controversy when the trial of the so-called 'political piece' of the ERE began, in which a score of former senior officials of the Board were convicted by the Seville Court, including the former socialist presidents Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán.
Then, the Prosecutor's Office was
tied in order to claim
the defendants for the money diverted in the ERE before the procedural maneuver of the Board, chaired at that time by the socialist Susana Díaz, to depart from the political piece, reserve the right to exercise actions to claim civil liability and not accuse any of the former high-ranking officials prosecuted.
By departing from the trial, the Board
definitively
blocked
that the Prosecutor's Office could ask them for the
millionaire bonds
that they had initially demanded.
The Andalusian Administration, as
injured by
the alleged looting of the ERE, was the only one that is entitled to request civil responsibilities in that trial.
Article 108 of the Criminal Procedure Law makes it very clear: "The civil action must be brought together with the criminal one by the Public Prosecutor's Office, whether or not there is in the private prosecution process; but if the offended person expressly renounces his right to restitution , the Public Prosecutor will limit itself to requesting the punishment of the guilty ".
The issue of civil liability "is not anecdotal at all," but rather has
"fundamental importance"
in the judicial process, a defense lawyer who has appeared in numerous pieces of the ERE tells EL MUNDO.
This lawyer also appreciates "inconsistencies" in the procedural strategy of the Board and the Prosecutor's Office and highlights how, while the prosecutor considers that all the money from the ERE has been embezzled, the Board has allowed the
6,000 people who took early retirement
with the departure under suspicion continue to collect their policies.
If all the money has been misappropriated, how is it not claimed?
This matter is sure to generate debate in the more than one hundred trials that have yet to be held and that were detached from the main macro-cause of corruption.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
PP
Court of Accounts
Susana diaz
Supreme court
PSOE
Manuel Chaves
Jose Antonio Griñán
Citizens
Corruption
ERE case
Andalusia
Justice Ten years of the 'case of the ERE': this is how the scandal broke out that ended an era in the Andalusian PSOE
PoliticsThe 2-D and the 'case of the ERE', two earthquakes in two years that changed everything in Andalusia
Courts Fernández, in the second trial of the ERE: "I still believe in Justice"
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