The judge of the 'Villarejo case' refuses to charge Iberdrola when he sees "disproportionate" attributing acts of a subsidiary

He points out that Asenjo would have contracted 'Wind' "on behalf and for the benefit" of Iberdrola Renovables

MADRID, 10 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón has refused to charge Iberdrola with 'Wind', one of the alleged illegal commissions to José Manuel Villarejo, understanding that the company's then head of Security, Antonio Asenjo, would have hired the business group of the commissioner, CENYT, "on behalf and for the benefit" of the Renewables subsidiary, considering it "disproportionate" to attribute these facts to the parent company.

In an order this Friday, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 dismisses an appeal filed by the president of ACS, Florentino Pérez, with which he once again demanded that Iberdrola be charged as legal person.

The instructor focuses the facts on the 'Wind' project, where the alleged contracting by Iberdrola Renovables to CENYT through Asenjo is investigated in 2011 "to carry out an investigation into the Swiss company Eólica Dobrogea, its majority shareholder Chrisopher Kaap and his agent Corneliu Dica", with whom he had allied himself for a series of projects in Romania but conflicts arose that ended up being resolved in favor of the Spanish company through arbitration.

"Unlike the circumstances that determined the citation as investigated of Iberdrola Renovables, where the connection between the company and the facts under investigation was clearly appreciated, in the present case, the study of the actions does not reveal a fact of connection or fact of reference that allows supporting the criminal responsibility of the legal person of Iberdrola", maintains the magistrate.

Thus, he explains that, although at that time Ignacio Sánchez Galán was president of the Iberdrola Group, including the Renovables subsidiary, Asenjo served as head of Security for the entire business conglomerate and as proxy for said subsidiary, stressing that Asenjo himself declared in 2020 that "the origin" of the commission 'Wind' to Villarejo would be the minor merchant.

"Specifically, he indicated that it was Víctor Rodríguez, director of Iberdrola Renovables whose relationship with the Iberdrola parent company is not recorded, who urged him to obtain information about the partners of Iberdrola Renovables in Romania, and it was also Víctor Rodríguez to whom he reported the information obtained. by CENYT about those", details the judge.

For García Castellón, the fact that Asenjo was head of Security for all of Iberdrola "does not allow the criminal responsibility of the legal entity to be shifted to the parent company of the group, which, following a hierarchical scale, would also be two steps above" the subsidiary. In his opinion, Asenjo acted on this occasion "on behalf and for the benefit of Iberdrola Renovables".

Likewise, although he assumes that the parent company must control its subsidiary, he stresses that in this case there is no evidence that Iberdrola was involved in the contracting of 'Wind', "so it is not possible to transfer criminal responsibility to it as a legal entity for omissions in the control of a commission in which he has not participated, nor is any type of intervention known".

"It would be not only unfounded, but also disproportionate, and could lead to eventual strict liability, to require the parent company to control all the actions of its subsidiary in order to try to avoid the commission of crimes when it is a question of an exclusive and exclusive action of the subsidiary company. "says the magistrate.

On the other hand, in this same resolution it establishes that "there is no reason to review the procedural situation of the private prosecution filed on behalf of Corneliu Dica."

'Wind' is one of the projects that the energy giant would have commissioned Villarejo since 2004 and that Villarejo would have carried out through his private companies using the police means at his disposal while he was still serving as commissioner. For all these jobs, he would have pocketed more than a million euros.