Imelsa's first trial already has a sentence: five and a half years for the 'money junkie' for the Thematica case

VALENCIA, 24 Jan. (EUROPE PRESS) -

The first trial for the Imelsa macro-cause has already been sentenced: the fifth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has sentenced the former manager of the defunct public company of the Provincial Council and self-styled 'money junkie' to seven years and ten months in prison ' for the crimes of prevarication, embezzlement and falsehood and money laundering in the first piece of the case, that of Thematica.

In this piece, whose hearing began in May of last year, irregularities in awards to the company Thematica Events have been judged, of which the 'money junkie' was the holder of 40% covertly. The courtroom has imposed a sentence on Benavent similar to that claimed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which requested eight years and three in prison for the defendant.

The trial came after more than six years since the first arrests were made in this procedure - in 2014 Esquerra Unida took the Prosecutor's Office some recordings with the alleged irregularities and in January 2016 the first arrests were made - and included several sections .

Among them, an alleged diversion of funds for the payment of electoral campaigns of the Popular Party in the municipal elections of 2007 and in the general elections of the year 2008. In this section, the court has acquitted all those accused of a crime of embezzlement public: Benavent; Thematica Events administrator, Rafael García Barat; the former mayor of Moncada with the PP and former vice president of the provincial corporation, Juan José Medina, for whom the public prosecutor requested five years in prison, and the PP as subsidiary civil liability.

The Thematica piece has been divided into four sections: that of the electoral campaigns of the PP; the adjudication of the Library Bus service for the summers of 2008 and 2009 by the Department of Culture of the Valencia City Council and this same service for the districts in 2010 and for the summer of 2010 -in the latter it was not promoted-- ; the Metamorphosis event at MuVIM and the activity carried out around the company Berceo Mantenimiento with a view to money laundering.

In the dock of the accused, in addition to Benavent, Medina and García Barat, five more people have been tried: the head of the Cultural Action service of the Department of Culture, Francisca Tamarit; the administrators of several companies who admitted at the beginning of the hearing the facts for which they had been prosecuted: José Antonio Toledo and Francisco Javier Márquez, managers of companies that issued invoices for work not carried out, and José Estarlich, who was like Jaime José Úbeda, administrator of the Bercero company, whose real property belonged to the junkie.

For the Bibliobus section, the courtroom has sentenced Tamarit and García Barat to five and four years and seven months in prison, respectively, for embezzlement and falsehood and imposes compensation to the City Council of 106,728 euros, with Thematica and another entity as responsible subsidiary civil.

For the Metamorphosis event, he acquits the former financial director of Imelsa, José Enrique Montblanch, and sentences Benavent for prevarication, embezzlement and falsehood to five years and six months in prison, disqualification and the payment of a fine of 17,100 euros and compensation with 136,634.51 euros to the heiress of Divalterra, together with García Barat, whom he sentences to four years and seven months in jail; Toledo was jailed for ten months for embezzlement and falsehood, as was Francisco Javier Márquez, and Úbeda for a year and a half.

And finally, in the section on Berceo Mantenimientos SL., it condemns the 'yonki' for money laundering and forgery to two years and four months in prison and a fine of 295,000 euros and that together with Úbeda, sentenced to one year and seven months, compensate with 93,186 euros to the commercial heiress of Divalterra. In this case, Estarlich has been sentenced to seven months in prison.

The courtroom has taken into account the mitigation of undue delay and confession by those convicted who admitted the facts as well as reparation for the damage, since two consigned part or all of the money claimed as liability.

The court has rejected the annulment and exclusion from the procedure of the recordings of the two flash drives and other telephone interventions requested by the defenses, who alleged violation of the right to privacy and irregularities in the chain of custody.

The room emphasizes that the recordings were made by Benavent himself with a tape recorder and two mobile phones, and that they were made throughout the years 2004 to 2007, without him reporting any manipulation or "to the UCO agents, once that his audition was carried out in his presence, and that it was ratified in the Investigating Court", says the court, which adds that, on the contrary, "he recognized and admitted both the authorship and the content of the audios".

For the room, it has been proven that Themática Events SL began to receive public contracts from Imelsa, without administrative file or publicity after Benavent and the manager of that company, García Barat, concocted a preconceived plan --and a corporate framework-- and they began "to use it for their personal purposes, fraudulently rigging contract awards, to take economic advantage of the contracts" for their own benefit, which meant the diversion of public funds and patrimonial damage to the public administration.

In the case of the Bibliobús, it considers it proven that the head of the City Council's Culture service and García Barat maintained a close personal relationship and, to predetermine the award of contracts to Themática, they "arranged" and took advantage of Tamarit's ability to divide services and that the contracts did not exceed the legal limit.

And to all the contracts, the official issued favorable reports to favor the enrichment of the other defendant, and despite the fact that they had objections from the Comptroller. The invoices included extra costs and services not provided, without their amount corresponding to the real amount of the services provided, with an extra cost that amounted to 59.7%.

In the case of the En-Arborar exhibition with the name Metamorphosis, at MuVIM, Benavent, in his capacity as manager of Imelsa, directed the efforts so that Thematica Events was contracted, for the realization of a video-mapping. In this case, the services were subcontracted, with important benefits for them to the detriment of the public company, by including extra costs --more than 136,000 euros-- and fictitious services in part of the billings assumed directly by Imelsa and issued by the judged businessmen. .

The amount invoiced to Imelsa, by Scope, Cyan and Vialbo was 206,844 euros and added the invoice of Themática Events SL, 212,154.51, with an initially estimated damage of 131,324.51 euros, although the room sets it at 93,186.54 euro.

Finally, in relation to Berceo Mantenimiento, without workers and without any activity, the court considers it proven that Benavent had 99% of the shares in a hidden manner and that it was used to invoice, without any provision, to Themática which, in turn, had billed Imelsa.

With it, they hid the profits obtained with the billing. In this case, invoices were issued to simulate services rendered for the presentation of vehicles from the Forestry Brigades and the 2008 vehicle presentation event.

The room considers the relationship of Benavent and García Barat to be proven based on a document intervened in the registry of the law firm Blasco Morales Abogados, former lawyer for the 'yonki', and highlights the forcefulness of the documentary in the case and the statement of the administrator of the Berceo company, José Estarlich.