Former workers of 'Gürtel' assure that Camps introduced the plot in Valencia and offered contracts with the Generalitat

The court changes the location of the former president to guarantee "order" in the Chamber after a new incident

MADRID, 21 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former workers of 'Gürtel' Isabel Jordán and Mónica Magariños have assured this Tuesday in the trial that is being followed in the National Court for the alleged irregularities in the award to Orange Market of a contract for Fitur that was the former regional president Francisco Camps who introduced to the plot in the Valencian Community and the one who offered the group various contracts with the Generalitat.

It should be remembered that Camps is facing a request by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for two and a half years in prison for the alleged illegalities committed in relation to the contract for the Valencian exhibitor for the Fitur 2009 edition.

To questions from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Magariños, one of the defendants, has detailed that 'Gürtel' decided to move from Madrid to Valencia after Camps urged Álvaro Pérez 'El Bigotes' to settle in the autonomous community. "Camps told Álvaro that he was going to have a job there, and in 2003 we began to hold regional congresses," she pointed out.

Magariños, who worked as the secretary of 'El Bigotes' and of the 'number two' in the plot, Pablo Crespo, has assured that the former asked Camps to recommend a person to ensure the entry of 'Gürtel' into the territory . The former president, he has explained, recommended Ignacio Blanch.

"He was a well-known person in Valencia, his brother had a company and a lot of relationships with everyone and that helped Blanch to have contacts," said Magariños, who gave details of his duties: "Álvaro was the one who was dedicated to get clients and I was in charge of organizing the events".

The clients themselves, he continued, were "only" public administrations. After the plot organized an "event for Camps in 2004 that appeared in all the newspapers", the leader of the 'Gürtel', Francisco Correa, and Pablo Crespo pressured 'El Bigotes' "a lot" to get him a job.

"Who were they asking for?" Prosecutor Concepción Nicolás asked him. "To Mr. Camps", Magariños replied, indicating that the group had its first beginnings "in the Presidency". "They gave us the USBs and communication guides in 2004. One of the first jobs with the Generalitat was brought by Blanch. Esteban González Pons, who was the one who was there, did not have a very good relationship with Pérez, but with Blanch he did," he added.

The plot worker has delved into the importance of Camps for Gürtel's work, recalling a visit that she herself made to the tennis club with 'El Bigotes'. "Camps was there with his family. Álvaro came back and told me: 'let's go, we already have the tennis Open'", she explained.

In this context, Magariños has also detailed how to invoice with the Valencian government after the prosecutor presented him with different documents. "The Generalitat said that you had to make invoices for less than 12,000 euros. They said the amount and it was Crespo who put the concepts," he said.

Another of the defendants has expressed the same line, the one considered to be the administrator of some of the group's companies, Isabel Jordán, who has also recounted how Gürtel moved to Valencia. "Everyone knew that Álvaro was going to Valencia because he had a friendship with Camps and because he had offered him to go to Valencia where he would have the chance to work," she asserted.

'El Bigotes', who had stopped working with the national PP, valued that opportunity and decided that it was "a good time" to settle in the autonomous community. Jordán, in addition, has also influenced the relevance of Blanch for the development that the group had in Valencia.

"Said by Blanch himself, he was hired because he is related to Camps and González Pons and he is a person with a lot of knowledge of what Valencia itself is or the institutions. He is an influential person or who had contacts, this said for himself," he said.

Thus, Jordán explained that as a result of the work that Orange Market carried out for the Valencian PP, "a great debt" was generated. "From there, from that great debt, let's say, they begin to give Pérez the different jobs that are done," he added.

The session this Tuesday has also served to listen to the statement of another of the defendants, the manager of Orange Market, Cándido Herrero, who has maintained that he never spoke with Camps and that he never saw him in the company's office. "As I have sworn to tell the truth *. I never heard him or heard him speak. Honestly no," he assured.

Herrero, who was initially hired as head of production, later received powers to handle logistical issues and document signing due to the problems that 'El Bigotes' had with the Treasury "from a legal point of view."

Despite acknowledging that he accompanied Pérez to some meetings in which contracts were arranged, Herrero has maintained that he did so as a "stone guest." "I was not the commercial nor did I know what was intended. I was going to capture a little and then in production transmit where the shots of the act that was going to be done were going," he added.

And, asked how the plot was made with those contracts, Herrero has been blunt: "It was Álvaro who knew them." However, he has revealed that the group did not "work a lot", which caused Crespo to get angry because "the company did not get as much" work as it was intended.

The start of the session has left a new incident around Camps himself after the lawyer for 'El Bigotes' denounced that the former president addressed him on Monday as a "miserable lawyer". That insult, he has maintained, occurred coinciding with the interrogation of Pérez himself.

The president of the court, magistrate José Antonio Mora, has decided to order Camps to go from occupying the last row of the room to sit in the first "in prevention" to the former Valencian president to maintain "order". Mora himself already asked the former president on Monday to show respect and to refrain from making comments during question time to other defendants.

The representation of Camps, for its part, has asked the court for permission for the former leader of the PP to occupy a "position on the bench" asserting his status as a practicing lawyer. After Mora agreed to his request, Camps has sat next to his defense after getting a toga.

In statements to the media at the end of the session, Camps thanked the court for "the opportunity" and took the opportunity to attack the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor again. "This is broken. The line of the Prosecutor's Office has collapsed: despair is absolute," he cried.

In this sense, Camps has asserted that the Public Ministry "is having a very bad time because it realizes that the assembly" to which it has subjected the "former members" of the Generalitat "is a pure falsehood that is collapsing." "After a statement that has been key, I think we can talk about a finite cause, a finished cause", he has settled.