MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The judge of the ‘Mediator case’ on corruption in the Canary Islands follows the trail of 17 alleged bites claimed by former PSOE deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo through bank accounts of a local sports association, a consultancy and also through a personal account.
It also investigates the payment in kind, including the free installation of solar panels on a family farm, according to the conversations analyzed by the investigators when they tapped Fuentes Curbelo’s mobile phone once he was arrested after delivering his act as a congressional deputy.
In the order, consulted by Europa Press, by which Fuentes Curbelo was released with precautionary measures since the Prosecutor’s Office did not ask for his entry into prison -as it did happen with the General of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa Navas-, the judge collects eleven requests to deposit money through the bank account of the Asociación Deportiva Tetir football club, of which Fuentes Curbelo was president.
Specifically, it investigates whether it used this local sports entity as a “screen to receive payments”, as well as to make cash withdrawals justified as payments to coaches.
“He justified the outgoing checks to the bearer in documentary supports that seem indicatively that they do not conform to reality, thereby managing to give an appearance of legality to this operation,” he says in a car to which Europa Press has had access.
The judge sees an “obvious desire to conceal the profits” and the former deputy from the Canary Islands assures that “he offered his possibilities in exchange for a consideration.” “He offered himself to as many situations as were put to him,” he says, alluding to paying for accommodation in hotels and restaurants, as well as parties “with company service.”
PENS TO TALK ABOUT MONEY
Regarding the former socialist deputy, the judge says that on at least 17 occasions she sent the intermediary of the plot, Marcos Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, the bank account where he wanted to receive the alleged bites, to which he alluded with the code name “pens”. Specifically, on eleven occasions he sent the one from the sports association, on five he resorted to a personal Openbank account and on one more occasion to one of his consultancies.
The head of the Investigating Court number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife refers to the police reports and the Tax Agency, as well as the evidence collected when the arrest of Fuentes Curbelo was ordered days after he presented his act as a congressional deputy .
From the search at the home and advice of the former deputy, two telephones and multiple documents from the Vega de Tetir Sports Association were seized, which are added to the evidence collected from the conversations recorded by the “mediator” of the plot, Marcos Antonio Navarro Tacoronte.
“From the result of the pre-analysis of the content of the seized mobile phones, it can be concluded that indeed the investigated –Fuentes Curbelo– held and is currently holding conversations with part of those investigated from the criminal organization,” said the magistrate.
The judge points out that she even directly asked a businessman to “bring him a pen, this being the same term used by the organization to refer to money”, and that this was done using the Congress of Deputies to receive businessmen, as well as that was made with the General Directorate of the Civil Guard by General Espinosa.
CASH WITHDRAWALS
The magistrate in charge of the case relates Fuentes Curbelo to the “cash withdrawals intended to pay the coaches and/or monitors who collaborate with the La Vega de Tetir Sports Association”, something that drew the attention of the Customs investigator assigned to the case.
These are checks that range between 2,000 and 5,600 euros between 2020 and 2021 -with some months affected by the COVID pandemic-, although the investigation indicates that the payment to these coaches was for a total amount of 9,800 euros, “while the sum of the checks issued to the bearer to cover these same services total 15,600 euros.
“That being the case, he would have deducted the amount of 5,900 euros from the Sports Association trying to give them the payment to collaborators as legal and accounting coverage,” continues the judge, who indicates that, preliminarily, it can be argued that there has been a ” diversion for purposes other than those indicated in the accounting documentation and that, in addition, part of this amount was paid by the businessmen investigated in the plot through transfers of 5,000 euros”.
