José Luis Moreno asks the National Hearing not to prolong the investigation into the 'Titella' case

It indicates that the procedure is null and void from the moment the first extension was agreed in 2018

MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The defense of the producer José Luis Moreno has asked the judge of the 'Titella case' not to extend the investigation again because, in his opinion, his right to a process with all the guarantees, to effective judicial protection and not to suffer defenselessness has already been injured from the moment in which the first judge who heard the matter - the Investigating Court number 14 of Madrid - advocated, without being asked by the prosecutor, for a first extension.

In a letter, to which Europa Press has had access, Moreno, who rose to fame for his performances as a ventriloquist on television, indicates that the principle of legal certainty, the prohibition of arbitrariness and the consistency of the judicial decisions, and recalls that this first extension of the investigation was resolved by means of an order issued "two months after" the term to do so expired.

For this reason, it understands that everything that has been done in the case as of the summer of 2018 is "certainly irregular" and "tainted with nullity" because the investigation has been completed since that date. And it clings to article 324 of the Criminal Procedure Law (LECrim) which states that "if, before the end of the term or any of its extensions, the instructor has not issued the resolution referred to in section 1 - -of extension--, or it was revoked by way of appeal, the proceedings agreed upon as of that date will not be valid."

It also asserts that the law does not contemplate that the extension can be agreed by the ex officio judge because it must always be at the request of the Public Prosecutor. And he adds that the deadlines set by the LECrim respond "to the need to expedite the provision of the public service of Justice" exceeding "the eternal instructions".

On the other hand, with the case already being investigated in the Central Investigating Court number 2, whose head is the magistrate Ismael Moreno, the producer's defense points out that now "it is appropriate to declare the present criminal investigation concluded because there are no circumstances that justify the extension of the term.

"It happens that the extension of the extension of a cause already declared complex must be totally and absolutely exceptional and, therefore, of restrictive application," he recalls, relying on jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. And he adds that the fact that agreed proceedings are pending "" does not enable or justify the setting of a new term ".

And it goes further because it asserts that the investigations carried out to date "force us to conclude that the facts attributed to Moreno lack any significance and criminal legal relevance", which is why "it is appropriate to agree without further delay to dismiss and archive the case." procedure regarding the same".

The inquiries into Titella began in 2018 and the operation hatched in June 2021 with the arrest of the ventriloquist and dozens of people in different cities for an alleged fraud perpetrated through a corporate network.

The investigators divide the alleged plot into two organizations: one led by Moreno, Antonio Aguilera and Antonio Salazar, dedicated since 2017 to "fraud and defrauding banks and private investors", "the counterfeiting of bank effects such as checks and promissory notes" and to "money laundering"; and another, headed by Carlos Brambilla, an alleged drug trafficker who would have used said structure to launder money.

According to the judicial report, Moreno and Aguilera would be the "most responsible" and Salazar, the third in action. Each one would have a function. The producer, "as a well-known public figure, would lend his name as a calling card" in order to easily get the financing they would pretend to need to get a film project off the ground. Therefore, he "was the main recipient of the funds obtained."

That money would then pass into the hands of Aguilera and Salazar. The two would have "extensive knowledge in banking and commercial operations", so they would be in charge of creating the companies, "make-up" them, appoint administrators and present them to the banking entities as the recipients of the necessary financing for said projects. In reality, they would lack any activity.

Through this network of "shell companies" managed by alleged front men, both organizations would move "large amounts of cash" to which they tried to get out with income that they passed off as benefits from their commercial work or with cash injections for which they would have the complicity of bank employees who would take their commission in exchange for introducing this money into the legal circuit.