The Supreme Court confirms the main sentences in the 'De Miguel case', the biggest corruption scandal of the PNV

• Sentence Alfredo de Miguel, former number two of the PNV in Álava, sentenced to 13 years in prison for the corruption case that bears his name

• Profile Alfredo de Miguel: a achiever protected by the 'establishment'

The Supreme Court has confirmed the ruling of the Provincial Court of Álava, in which the members of the «

» were convicted of corruption.

They are members of the PNV

and

The sentence of the Criminal Chamber states that the three defendants, taking advantage of their capacity for political influence as members of the Álava executive of the Basque Nationalist Party and their political camaraderie with personalities who held important positions in the regional and municipal administration, They were arranged to encourage certain government agencies to award works or service contracts to businessmen who were willing to pay them a commission.

The court has been formed by the magistrates

(president),

and

(rapporteur of the resolution).

To conceal the collection of these commissions, the defendants formed several companies that invoiced fictitious services to the benefited businessmen.

Companies that appeared not to belong to the defendants, since they were constituted under the ownership of front men.

One of these companies, called Kataia Consulting SL

was established in the name of their respective wives.

The Provincial Court of Álava acquitted

(wife of Carlos Aitor Telleria), for not having proven that she came to know that the company was linked to an illegal activity of her husband, but the Supreme Court confirms the sentence that was imposed

and

Sánchez

as responsible for the crimes of money laundering and cooperation in the illicit association constituted by their spouses, imposing sentences totaling 1 year and 6 months in prison on each of them, as well as 180,000 euros of fine.

The three main defendants used two other companies for the same purposes.

Specifically, the companies Errexal SL and Ortzi Muga SL.

These were set up under the simulated ownership of Josu Azkarraga Montes and Iñaki San Juan Bilbao who, from corporate management, helped in the commission of the crimes and in the collection of income.

For this reason, they have been convicted as collaborators of the crimes of prevarication, embezzlement of public funds, falsification of a commercial document and illegal association, imposing various penalties that exceed 4 years in prison for each of them.

The ruling also condemns the three Basque politicians for influencing some of the administrative contracts to be directly awarded to their companies, thus achieving better benefits, particularly in some cases in which they managed to get the Administration to pay them for work that they never did.

high jail terms

For all these actions, the members of the Álava executive have been convicted of the crimes of influence peddling, inducement or cooperation in prevarication, bribery, embezzlement of public funds, document forgery, illicit association and money laundering.

Alfredo De Miguel has been imposed, in addition to penalties of disqualification and a fine, a total of 12 years and 4 months in prison, with a legal limit of 9 years.

Luis Felipe Ochandiano is imposed, in addition to other accessory penalties, 7 years and 6 months in prison, which are limited to 6 years and 9 months of effective compliance.

Finally, Carlos Aitor Telleria is sentenced to a total of 5 years, 1 month and 15 days in prison.

The administrative contracts from which these responsibilities derive were granted by public bodies also governed by members of the Basque Nationalist Party, specifically by the Álava Technology Park, the Department of Culture of the Basque Government, the Álava municipalities of Lapuebla de Labarca, Zigoitia and Zambrana , as well as by the Cuadrillas of the Historical Territory of Álava whose presidents belonged to that political group.

For the awarding of the contracts, the ruling proclaims that the political influence that the defendants had over some of the members of these corporations was taken advantage of and that the collaborators, in addition to violating the administrative processing procedure, proposed the award due to cronyism with the defendants. .

Thus, some officials are condemned who, from strategic positions for the processing of the files, favored the defendants.

Specifically, the ruling condemns

(manager of the Álava Technology Park) for his cooperation in committing a crime of administrative prevarication, imposing a four-year disqualification sentence on him.

To

(Director of Youth and Community Action of the Department of Culture of the Basque Government), as a cooperator of a continued crime of prevarication, as well as the perpetrator of a crime of active integration into an illegal association and perpetrator of the continued crimes of influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds and documentary falsification, for which they impose various penalties, including imprisonment for more than 7 years.

With them, the former mayoress of the town of Zambrana,

has been sentenced, declaring her responsibility as the author of a continuous crime of prevarication and who is imposed 9 years of disqualification for public charge.

As a consequence of the clarification of the plot, the judgment also condemns certain businessmen who promoted the illegal action and who benefited from it.

Although some did not appeal the sentence imposed on them by the Vitoria Provincial Court,

(Studio Técnico de Obras y Arquitectura SL) and

(Construcciones Loizate SA) did.

For the first, his sentence to 1 year and 6 months in prison for the crimes of documentary falsification and bribery is confirmed.

The second is sentenced as inducer of a crime of influence peddling to 5 months in prison.

The ruling, in addition to acquitting Alfredo De Miguel, Carlos Aitor Telleria, Iñaki San Juan and Alfonso Arriola of some isolated actions for which the Álava Provincial Court convicted them, has acquitted Julián Andrés Sánchez Alegría (President of the

del País Vasco), for not providing sufficient proof that he came to know of the irregularities incurred in the procedures that led to the award of contracts in favor of the entities

and

facts for which he had been convicted in the first instance sentence.

He also acquits Jon Iñaki Echaburu of the crimes of bribery and illicit association for which he was initially convicted.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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