The National Court judges Camps from this Monday for the Fitur contract on the 'Gürtel' plot

The former president of the Generalitat Valenciana faces two and a half years in prison for having allegedly benefited the plot

MADRID, 22 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court celebrates from this Monday the trial of the former president of the Generalitat Valenciana Francisco Camps for the alleged irregularities in the award to Orange Market, one of the companies of the 'Gürtel' plot, of the contract for the Valencian exhibitor of the Fitur edition 2009, some events for which the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor requests that he be sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

The start of the oral hearing, which will sit another 26 defendants on the bench, is preceded by a cascade of confessions and conformity, to which Europa Press has had access, from some of the main names linked to 'Gürtel'.

The leader of the plot, Francisco Correa, his 'number two', Pablo Crespo, its administrator, Isabel Jordán, the manager of Orange Market, Cándido Herrero, and the person in charge of it, Álvaro Pérez Alonso, alias 'El Mustaches', have sent letters of recognition of the facts and have adhered to the conclusions raised by the Prosecutor's Office.

In them, the Public Ministry asks to impose two years and six months in prison on Camps as the author of a crime of prevarication and another of fraud against the administration, considering that he actively participated in directing the Fitur 2009 contract in favor of Orange Market.

According to the account of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Correa, 'El Bigotes' and Herrero, agreed with Camps so that he, as the highest regional authority, arranged what was necessary for the contract for the assembly of the 'Large Projects stand' of Fitur was directly awarded to Orange Market.

Camps himself sent a letter to the Criminal Chamber of the National Court last July in which he asked that the barrage of confessions not be taken into account, recalling that compliance agreements can only be assessed as "self-incriminating", that is, , for those who confess, without being able to condition the rest of the defendants.

Correa, who already accumulates sentences for more than 90 years in prison, has raised a sentence of 2 years and 3 months in prison and a fine of 134,500 euros for crimes of influence peddling, administrative prevarication, embezzlement of public funds and false document trade.

"The person most responsible for the crimes that are charged in this procedure is me," he wrote in his own handwriting in a document drawn up from the Valdemoro prison (Madrid) on July 6, 2022.

In his writing, the leader of the 'Gürtel' credits himself with the idea of ​​creating Orange Market to "obtain contracts from the Generalitat Valenciana and organize the electoral campaigns of the PP" there, "given the good relations that Álvaro (Pérez, alias 'El Bigotes') began with Paco Camps".

Crespo, for his part, proposes the same sentence as Correa -2 years and 3 months in jail_and acknowledges in his letter that he was in charge of the "accounting and financial supervision of the group of companies" of 'Gürtel', having "timely and of Orange Market activities".

Jordán, who proposes 1 year, 10 months and 15 days in prison, makes it clear that since he began to participate in the plot the person who "demanded and gave instructions" was Crespo, in no case Correa. The defendant also gives extensive details about Camps and 'El Bigotes', to whom the former Valencian president owed "his best moments of his mandate with a complete, impeccable image."

Finally, Herrero acknowledges in his writing that he "attended meetings with different officials" to "concrete" the work of each of the events and "make the budgets" while pointing directly to 'El Bigotes' as the one who "got the works". The manager of 'Orange Market' proposes that he be sentenced to 7 years and 11 months in prison.

In recent months, in addition, other defendants have also adhered to the conclusions of the Prosecutor's Office, such as the former manager of the 'La luz de las imágenes' foundation, María del Carmen Díaz Quintero, the former director of the Valencian Institute of Evaluation and Quality Education (IVECE) María Auxiliadora Hernández, or the former head of the technical office of the Valencian Industrial Security and Promotion Society (SEPIVA) Enrique Bort.

The former chief of staff of the Ministry of Social Welfare Enrique Navarro, the former manager of the company Proyecto Cultural Castellón Vicente Farnós de los Santos and the person who was responsible for the General Directorate of Archives and Technological Innovation Silvia Caballer.

In his letter, Caballer acknowledges that he agreed with 'El Bigotes' to hire Orange Market for the 'II Free Software Congress', held in Castellón in May 2005, admitting that he learned of four invoices issued to the General Directorate of Archives and Technological Innovation , each for an amount of 12,020.24 euros, divided so that "they could be processed as minor contracts."

In the aforementioned letter, Anticorrupción indicates that the "settling" of the 'Gürtel' in the Valencian Community from 2003 "had the purpose of taking advantage of the business possibilities offered by Camps not only for the organization and execution of all acts of the Popular Party to be held in said autonomous community, including the electoral campaign for the autonomous elections of May 2003 in which he was elected president of the Generalitat".

"But also with the subsequent objective of achieving an advantageous position in the call for and award of public contracts related to events that could be organized by bodies of the Valencian Autonomous Administration and by public entities dependent on it, and particularly, for the editions of the FITUR International Tourism Fair", continues the Prosecutor's Office.

"This expansion of the business" would have been articulated by Correa, Crespo, Herrero and 'El Bigotes', fundamentally, through the constitution on July 24, 2003 of the Orange Market company to operate in the Valencian Community itself. 'Whiskers' himself would later be named president of the company's board of directors and Herrero, for his part, CEO.

"From that moment on," Camps would have provided "El Bigotes" with access to senior positions in the regional administration with decision-making power and notable involvement in the processing, adjudication, and execution of contracting files for FITUR and other fairs, as well as other events.

These, "following the instructions of the then president of the Generalitat Valenciana, made it possible for said company to illegally obtain advertising contracts, for the organization of congresses, fairs and events of administrations and public entities dependent on the Generalitat, for the benefit of their company", according to the prosecution.