The former mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Miguel Zerolo has suggested to the Court of Instruction 3 of that judicial party that he can save himself the procedures of sending him to the Tenerife II prison to declare as being investigated in the Emmasa case on October 5 because In any case, you will accept your right not to declare. Zerolo, who is serving a sentence for the so-called Las Teresitas case, is one of the people charged with embezzlement of public funds and administrative prevarication after it was discovered that the City Council, under his presidency, initiated the return of the fee paid by the multinational Sacyr to stay with the management of the public service of the integral water cycle through the control of the municipal company Emmasa.
The Santa Cruz City Council paralyzes millionaire payments to Sacyr for the return of the Emmasa purchase fee
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In addition to Miguel Zerolo, the former CEO of that company, Pablo Abril Martorell, is also on trial.
The facts became known in the short period of time during which Coalición Canaria, the party for which Miguel Zerolo was mayor, left the power of the city between 2019 and 2020 after having exercised it for 40 years in its different political formulations. The new majority, led by the socialist mayor Patricia Hernández, discovered that the consistory had begun since the time of Zerolo the return of the 59 million canon that Sacyr had contributed to win the contest and stay with control of the mixed company, Emmasa.
At the time of knowing the irregularity, the City Council had already returned 33 of the 59 million that the multinational had paid as canon. The facts were brought to the attention of the justice by the councilor of United We Can Ramón Trujillo.
The events under investigation date back to December 2005, when the City Council, then chaired by Miguel Zerolo, from the Canary Coalition, awarded the company Sacyr-Vallehermoso the management of the integral water cycle in Santa Cruz de Tenerife for 25 years in exchange for the payment of 59 million euros for the fee to manage public infrastructure and 1.27 million for the acquisition of 212 shares of Emmasa. Two years later, the board of directors of the municipal company decided to return the money disbursed to the multinational by paying 2.3 million euros each year.
All this framework came to light in 2018, when Emmasa demanded from the City Council an increase in the water rate for the residents of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. After the reports of the City Council technicians during the socialist government that confirmed that the return had been taking place outside the tender specifications, it was decided paralyze millionaire payments, which were already around 30 million euros. And United We Can denounced the facts, first before the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and, in the face of the danger that they would prescribe, before the Investigating Court number 3 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which admitted the complaint for processing just one day before the prescription.
Former mayor Zerolo was summoned to testify on October 5, but has already announced that he will exercise his right not to do so. However, in a letter sent to the judge, he anticipates that he will use that prerogative as a result of the progress of the investigation. That is, he does not rule out asking to appear before the instructor when it suits his interests as investigated.
Miguel Zerolo is serving a sentence in Tenerife II prison for the same crimes that are now charged with him, prevarication and embezzlement of public funds, in the urban operation in front of Las Teresitas beach, in the same capital. Along with him, several officials were convicted, another councilor and two businessmen, one of them already deceased, and the other already released after taking charge of the return of the embezzled amount (52 million euros) with their corresponding interests, in total, almost 100 million euros that were also demanded by the City Council in the brief parenthesis during which the Canary Coalition was in opposition.
In the Emmasa case, the City Council, again in the hands of that party, will not exercise the private prosecution when deciding with the casting vote of the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez.
