The Prosecutor's Office requests a conviction when considering the "perverse mechanism" that the 'Púnica' established in León has been proven

Anti-corruption maintains that reputation works were paid for by the "public treasury"

MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has requested this Thursday in the trial of the piece of the 'Púnica case' related to León that a condemnatory sentence is followed in the National Court, considering the "perverse mechanism" that the plot established in the Provincial Council and that they would have devised , among others, the alleged "achiever" of the plot, the businessman Alejandro de Pedro, the former president of the Provincial Council Martín Marcos Martínez and the former chief of staff Pedro Vicente Sánchez.

During the presentation of its report, which has lasted for two hours, the Prosecutor's Office has focused on the arrival of the plot in the Provincial Council of León. It was "before the negative news that was published" about the then president, Isabel Carrasco, when the leader came into "contact with the tandem" formed by Alejandro de Pedro and José Antonio Conesa with whom, through the mediation of the then vice president Martín Marcos, "arranged" the relationship of reputation works.

"These were almost exclusively for the purpose of Google search engines displacing the negative news and that only positive or neutral news related to their activity appeared," detailed the prosecutor, who has argued that "not only the deceased participated in that concert" Isabel Carrasco and Martínez, but other people who "mastered the necessary fact so that the works were not paid for by the president, but by the public treasury."

The Public Prosecutor considers that the perverse mechanism used by the defendants has been "proven", which would have validated invoices and authorized different payments to make "a budget available to the president that exceeded" half a million euros in some cases.

In this context, the Prosecutor's Office has affirmed that "the result of this work of the tandem was created a trust" with Carrasco and Marcos "which led to the fact that once he died" the plot continued to carry out these works, on this occasion, for his successor in the post. Marcos, who became president after Carrasco's assassination, faces the highest penalty: 8 years in prison.

This concert, the prosecutor has continued, led to new services being offered in addition to the reputation work itself, which included the hiring of journalists, political advisory work or, ultimately, the bidding for new contracts related to the exploitation of the complex from the ski slopes of San Isidro.

That pact, the Public Prosecutor has maintained, contemplated that the coverage for these works would be given by the fact of endorsing invoices for the alleged insertion of advertising banners. This task, however, has been described as "a ruse" by the Prosecutor's Office.

Thus, the Public Ministry has focused on the "infiltration" that both De Pedro and Conesa would have carried out not only in León, but in "almost 40 public entities and ministries" spread over other provinces. All this was reflected in some of the telephone interventions exposed in plenary, an "example", according to the prosecutor, of what was "the picaresque of the Spanish Golden Age".

In this line, the Prosecutor's Office has drawn the role of the main defendants: De Pedro would be the contrived of the plot, while Conesa was "the daily reference", having an "active role in making decisions" at the financial level. It should be remembered that both face a request for 5 and a half years in prison for embezzlement of public funds in competition with falsehood and fraud.

In some of the audios that have been heard at the oral hearing, the prosecutor recalled, "a photo of that leadership that Conesa practiced with De Pedro on many occasions" is taken. "The way in which Conesa explains the formation of the gift and how you add the commission to the gift you are asking for is a very descriptive episode. There is a very important co-authorship."

The Prosecutor's Office itself has also referred to the performance of the 'Punic' plot in other territories to make it clear that "the same 'modus operandi'" was always followed. First, personal reputation reports were received, followed by a report on the customer's initial perception on the web. Later, the banners were inserted and, on the other hand, the validation of the invoices was carried out for a trust charge, without there being a person in charge of verifying that what was agreed in writing was carried out.

Some of the calls exchanged between De Pedro and Conesa would have made this point clear, the defendants themselves going so far as to specify the initial purpose of their work: "This is pure and hard reputation," one of them came to maintain.

This initial work, the Prosecutor's Office has influenced, created a "relationship of dependency" between the plot and the administration that made De Pedro and Conesa have the door open to "plan other contracts."