Bonuses, trips to Costa Rica and even the rental of the UGT-A booth at the April Fair with subsidies from the Board for training

Silvia Moreno Sevilla

Seville

Updated Tuesday, January 30, 2024-19:20

• UGT-A Courts hide behind Juanma Moreno to try not to pay the 40.7 million of the fraud

• Interview Roberto Macías, the former UGT worker who uncovered the fraud: "The time has come for the union to sit on the bench and return the money"

The million-dollar subsidies that the Andalusian Government granted to the Andalusian federation of UGT to provide training courses to the unemployed served, in part, to pay for bonuses

,

to pay for trips to

Costa Rica

and Dublin for union leaders and even to pay the rental of the booth that the union has at the

April Fair

in Seville.

This was made clear this Tuesday in the trial being held in the Seville Court against five former leaders of UGT-A and their company Soralpe and ten trusted suppliers of the union. The fifteen are accused of an alleged fraud of

40.7 million

euros with subsidies from the Board intended for training that the union allegedly used to finance itself irregularly.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor

Fernando Soto

has carried out an exhaustive interrogation with the head of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard that investigated this case -then captain and now commander-. The witness has detailed the

"circuit of money"

that flowed between the union and its instrumental company Soralpe.

It was precisely that company, Soralpe, that was used to pay the bonuses,

finance the trips

and pay the rent for the booth at the April Fair, as has been recorded in the numerous emails and accounting documents collected by the researchers.

Thus, the head of the UCO has confirmed that they analyzed a document, seized from Soralpe, which reflects monthly payments or bonuses to leaders of the Andalusian federation of UGT of

between 800 and 3,000 euros per month

. That writing is "relevant" and that is why it was included in the report prepared by the Civil Guard and sent to the court.

In these bonuses, an advance of 2,000 euros was also recorded for

Federico Fresneda

, the former treasurer of the union who also sits on the dock, and another advance for

Pepa Castillejo

, the former Secretary of Employment and Training in the Regional Executive of UGT-A. Investigators are not aware that these advances were returned.

The evidence gathered by the UCO also details a trip to Costa Rica made by

Manuel Pastrana

, general secretary of UGT-A from 1998 to 2013. This trip was paid for by Soralpe, which was primarily funded by the funds transferred by the union to the formation. Pastrana had a relevant role in the purchasing center that the union implemented in 2006 and which served to divert subsidies. However, although he was listed as being investigated - previously charged - he never testified before the judge and the case against him was filed due to the illness he suffers from.

Pastrana's trip was not the only one paid for with subsidies from the Board. There is another to

Dublin

and numerous train journeys. In order to sneak these trips into the hands of the Board, when justifying the subsidies, the travel agencies they hired were asked that "neither

names nor dates

" appear "in the concept . "

April Fair

The instrumental company Soralpe was also in charge of paying the rent for the booth that UGT-A has at the April Fair in a privileged place next to the cover. It was just over 2,000 euros, as indicated by the prosecutor. This detail has been one of the novelties provided in the trial. EL MUNDO already published on August 25, 2013 that UGT Andalucía paid, using subsidies from the Andalusian Department of Employment, for

the dinners with an open bar

to which it invited its employees on the eve of the April Fair in Seville. An invoice revealed that the 12,716 euros spent at the Fair were spent as "collective bargaining meetings." In other words, the rental of the booth is now added to the agapes already uncovered by this newspaper.

There were more alleged diversions of subsidies, since the union paid for

briefcases

, banners, "pride pay," t-shirts and "even the repair of a chair," stressed the prosecutor, who insisted that UGT-A "defrayed its union activity" and other services that "have nothing to do with training" with the Board's subsidies for the courses.

Program for the 'boat'

The handling of the alleged plot does not stop there, since the union went so far as to design a computer program -

Spyro

- with a computer company in which the entire mechanism was established to keep control of the alleged

false billing

that it generated in order to keep part of it. of public subsidies. The accused

María Charpín

, secretary of economic management during the investigated stage and former member of the guarantees commission of UGT Confederal, was the person in charge of dealing with the company that implemented

Spyro

.

This program includes the

pot

that was growing with false invoices and the rebate, with the discounts that suppliers made to UGT-A, but they were not reflected in the invoices that were presented to justify the subsidies. "It is a discount that is being hidden" from the Board, stated the head of the UCO who he testified as a witness.

In the records, the investigators found a type of

instruction manual

for "procurement management

"

, which explains to the union workers how they have to proceed at all times with the delivery notes and with the suppliers.

Classroom rental

Another key part of the alleged plot is the fictitious rental of classrooms. UGT was the owner of several buildings, but it gave them usufruct to Soralpe so that this company, in turn, rented them to Ifes (Institute of Training and Social Studies), another entity of the union. In this way, the union can present to the Board invoices for renting classrooms that, in reality, are fictitious because the properties belong to the union itself. An

"artifice"

, the head of the UCO has concluded.

The only defense lawyer who questioned the head of the UCO this Tuesday was

Luis López de Castro

, Fresneda's defender, who questioned why Pastrana's home was not searched or his phone was tapped, after there were witnesses. that they said that he ran the union in a "personalistic" way. "We thought it was not appropriate," he added. The trial continues this Wednesday with the same police chief who must be questioned by the rest of the defense lawyers.

The Court rejects Juanma Moreno's declaration

The Court of Seville has dismissed the previous question of UGT-A in the trial of its former leadership regarding the fact that there is no civil liability in the agreement with the Board for the payment of unjustified or defrauded money from aid for training courses, as well such as the request that the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, declare.

The decision has been adopted by the Third Section of the Court, which has been judging five former leaders of UGT-A since this Monday, including the former general secretary, Francisco Fernández, and ten other people who acted as suppliers to the union, after a written presented last Friday by the defense lawyer, José María Calero.

The agreement between UGT-A and the Board "does not imply the payment of the debt claimed in this procedure," indicates the Court's order that has been delivered to the parties at the beginning of the second day of the trial, and that has subsequently been been sent to the media by the TSJA Information Office.

The order comes one day after the parties involved in the process presented their previous issues: the Prosecutor's Office, the Board and the Andalusian PP as accusations and the defenses of the former general secretary of the union Francisco Fernández Sevilla, and the former general secretary. of Administration of UGT-A, Federico Fresneda.

Also present are the defense of the former Secretary of Economic Management, María Charpín; the former head of the Purchasing department of UGT-A, Dolores Sánchez; the CEO of Soralpe I Mas P Asociados SL, Enrique Goicoechea, and ten people who acted as suppliers to the union through the companies they represented.

During the presentation of the previous issues, José María Calero, requested that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Junta de Andalucía renounce the claim for the 40.7 million euros supposedly defrauded, since, as he explained, there is a 2022 agreement for the that the union center undertakes to return in installments and over 25 years the million-dollar sums for unjustified subsidies.

The Prosecutor's Office and the Board claim 40.7 million from UGT-A as subsidiary civil liability, and the UGT lawyer recalled that there is a copy, which he has provided to the judge, of an agreement between the union and the Board.

The UGT defense brief demanded that the president of the Board, Juanma Moreno, account for said agreement and questioned whether the Board is claiming that amount when there is an "agreement of wills" on the return with monthly payments of an amount which has even reached 70 million euros.

The Court's order rejects "the testimonial and documentary evidence" requested on a subsidiary basis by the UGT defense, considering it "unnecessary for the resolution of this case and because the agreement is not denied."

The court postpones its decision to the sentence regarding the defense's requests to proceed with the annulment of the proceedings because the fundamental rights of its clients have been violated, especially with regard to telephone interventions, entries and searches. , and recording conversations.