The Prosecutor’s Office asks to file the case against 12 of the 14 investigated in the ‘NAP case’

After all those investigated have declared before the judge instructing the case, María Isabel Pardo-Vivero, in the Investigating Court Number 1 of Granadilla, The Prosecutor’s Office has presented a report in which it assures that “it cannot be proven” that 12 of them approved the absorption, in the board of directors of the ITER (Technological and Renewable Energy Institute) of 2012, aware that they could harm the public coffers and benefit private partners. For this reason, the prosecutor Olga Méndez requests the dismissal of the accusations of prevarication and embezzlement, according to the SER chain in Tenerife.

Among these 12 investigated in which the Prosecutor’s Office does not see criminal conduct there are also personalities from the social and economic sphere of the Island, such as Álvaro Arvelo, former president of CajaCanarias; Eduardo Doménech, former rector of the University of La Laguna; and Francisco Sánchez, director of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC). Or positions of the Canarian Government such as the Deputy Minister for the Fight Against Climate Change, Miguel Ángel Pérez (PSOE)

The investigation focuses on an ITER board of directors held in 2012 in which this company from the Cabildo of Tenerife acquired a half-public, half-private company, NAP (Network Access Point, internet access point) from West Africa-Canary Islands. It does so “assuming with public money the large debts of the private party without these private partners making additional outlays, assuming any risk, or having to answer for those losses,” as the complaint from the public ministry of June 29 of last year assures. which opened the proceedings.

Then, the Prosecutor’s Office considered that it was necessary to investigate all the directors when observing signs of crime. Now it concludes, once the investigation is advanced and after the statements of the defendants and witnesses, that 12 of the 14 members of that board of directors who supported the ITER operation did not commit any irregularity. This list is completed by Raquel Lucía, CEO of the public entity INtech of the Cabildo; Nicolás Díaz, former CEO of the Canary Islands Technological Institute (ITC); the former councilors of the Cabildo Antonio García Marichal (CC), Magaliz López (CC) and Jesús Morales (CC); and Esteban González (PP), former mayor of Urban Planning of Granadilla de Abona. They all represented their parties or entities in that ITER council.

The other two counselors monopolize the accusations and are left out of the request for dismissal. The prosecutor defends in this last letter that Ricardo Melchior (CC), former president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, and Manuel Cendagorta, who was managing director of ITER, would hide documentation so that the operation was approved even though it was ruinous for public interests.

Prevent access to information

«It cannot be proven, at least for now, that the aforementioned investigated [los 12 para los que se pide el archivo] had real and effective knowledge of the economic situation” of the NAP entity, because, according to the prosecutor, “the other two investigated, Ricardo Melchior and Manuel Cendagorta, would have worried about hiding, hindering or preventing access to the rest of the investigated to documentation. These hidden documents, explains Olga Méndez, “are necessary to understand that an economic operation was being carried out to the clear detriment of the interests of ITER”, the public company of the Cabildo. The public ministry also ensures that the loans for the absorption of the NAP were “irregular” and “arranged without the private capital partners assuming any guarantee.”

The operation was agreed for 4.2 million euros, a price that the public ministry considers “unjustified” and “inflated”. He wonders how the private partners, who represented 53% of the NAP’s shares -the other 47% belonged to the Cabildo-, were able to obtain an income from the accumulated debt of 6 million euros dragged by the company from which they they undid “The formula escapes any business logic,” the report highlights. The options chosen to execute the purchase of the NAP, the acquisition of shares from the private party or compensation with shares of other public companies of the Cabildo de Tenerife, are described by the Prosecutor’s Office as “incomprehensible” and “clearly harmful to the public treasury, contravening the principles of efficiency, effectiveness and rationality of the administration of public assets”.

“Clear” economic damage

It concludes in the brief sent to the judge that the operation “caused, knowingly and voluntarily, a clear economic damage to the public entity ITER, thus benefiting the private owners of shares in the NAP company, who saw how, in the worst case scenario, they obtained the return of their contributions despite the fact that the debts accumulated by the NAP exceeded 6 million euros». According to the current vice-president of the Cabildo, Enrique Arriaga (Ciudadanos), the absorption caused a patrimonial damage to the insular Corporation “in excess of 12 million euros”.

The prosecutor emphasizes that Ricardo Melchior and Manuel Cendagorta would be around these maneuvers. For example, the movements to hide information from the other members of the ITER council who approved the absorption of the NAP seem “surprising”. Ricardo Melchior, specifically, was in 2012, at the time the operation now under investigation took place, president of the Cabildo. But he was also, as the prosecutor recalls, he was president of the board of directors of ITER and NAP.

The Prosecutor’s Office considers that “it has been possible to corroborate” what the 12 investigated for whom the file requests assured in their appearances before the judge: that “they lacked the necessary information” and “trusted” the statements of the ITER manager, Manuel Cendagorta, who “painted a picture of absolute prosperity or, in the best of cases, hid the real information.” “Such responsibility cannot be understood without the necessary collaboration of the other investigated, Ricardo Melchior,” concludes Olga Méndez.

Once the report from the Prosecutor’s Office has been received, the judge will now have to decide whether to accept this request to file the case for 12 of the 14 investigated. The public ministry also requests in its last document that the investigation be extended for six months and new investigation procedures.

The Prosecutor’s Office requests the dismissal of the cases of these 12 investigated:

Miguel Angel Perez (PSOE)

• He was a Councilor for Education of the Cabildo. He is now Deputy Minister of the Canarian Government.

Antonio G. Marichal (CC)

• He was a councilor of the Cabildo and was on the ITER board of directors in 2012.

Jesus Morales (CC)

• He was a councilor of the Cabildo and was on the ITER board of directors in 2012.

Esteban Gonzalez (PP)

• He was on the board of directors of ITER as mayor of Urbanism of Granadilla.

Alvaro Arvelo

• He was president of CajaCanarias, the financial entity that guaranteed the loans to the NAP.

Eduardo Domenech

• He was on the ITER board of directors as rector of the Lagunera University.

Nicolas Diaz Chico

• He was on the board of directors as CEO of the Technological Institute.

Francis Sanchez

• He was on the ITER board of directors as director of the Astrofísico de Canarias.

Magaliz Lopez Garcia (CC)

• She was a councilor of the Cabildo and was on the ITER board of directors in 2012.

Rachel Lucia Brito

• He represented the Tenerife Economic Council on the ITER board of directors.

Aurelio Abreu (PSOE)

• He was vice president of the Cabildo and was on the ITER board of directors.

Carlos Alonso (CC)

• He was a councilor for Mobility at the Cabildo and was on the ITER board of directors.