In the background on the left the former president of the Provincial Council of Valencia, Alfonso Rus, from the PP, and in the middle with vest Marcos Benavent, the “money junkie”, Mònica Torres
The trial of alleged irregular employment of 16 people by the Valencia Provincial Council and the Generalitat between 2004 and 2015 began this Monday with a double setback for Alfonso Rus, former president of PP Group. Like other party leaders, the former leader of the province of Valencia faces 12 years in prison. There are 26 defendants in all, including one of his closest associates, Marcos Benavent, the “money junkie,” as he described himself on one occasion when he felt sorry. After cooperating with the public prosecutor’s office, nine years in prison are requested for him.
The double setback for Rus and the rest of the main defendants lies, first, in the fact that the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has announced that a dozen of these workers have admitted not to hold any positions in the public companies where they were hired, Imelsa (of the Diputación, dedicated to boosting the local economy) or Ciegsa (run by the Generalitat, which built schools), both run by the PP. Some of them didn’t even show up at work. They are called zombie workers. And second, Rus’ attorney failed in his motion to annul the trial by attempting to question the flash drives that contained the notes Benavent made to various popular leaders and which formed the basis for much of the pieces of the piece commonly referred to as The In the Taula case, it has not been possible to have these audios annulled as evidence in this piece, also known as the Imelsa case.
The vast majority of the contracts in question (13) had a personal or professional relationship with the PP. Among them, for example, was a former player from Xàtiva Olympic, the club that Rus ran in the city where he was also the mayor. But there are also three contractors who appear to have been related to the PSPV-PSOE.
Alfonso Rus, former leader of the PP, upon his arrival in the City of Justice in Valencia. Monica Torres
One of these three socialist party zombies, Francisco Javier Cañizares, came close to getting the trial suspended by resigning his attorney and requesting one ex officio. He also came to confirm the arguments of the public prosecutor’s office, who assured in his letter that he “never” went to Imelsa and worked for the PSOE. “They put me in charge of the lawyer and want me to say that I worked at Imelsa but at the PSOE in maintenance. Do I have to go to a lawyer who says the opposite of me? I want a lawyer who tells the truth,” he said after being asked by the court to explain the last-minute decision, despite the fact that the case has been going on for years.
According to the directive, Cañizares was employed in Imelsa for almost four years and received just over 108,000 euros and although in theory he should have become an adviser to Toni Gaspar, then MP and now President of the Provincial Council, he never exercised that function. Despite the fact that his attorney also dropped his defense after hearings, the court denied both motions and ruled that the case will proceed.
What affects most is what happens closer. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
Subscribe to
The popular ex-president has entered the City of Justice surrounded by notable media expectations but calmly. “I am very calm. I already wanted, seven years old … I already wanted to at least talk because my lawyers won’t let me, ”he assured. Although he was expected to testify first, it was eventually agreed that the defendants who admitted the facts should do so first, so we will have to wait to hear their version. Nevertheless, this first day was used for the previous questions.
His lawyer has questioned the validity of the USB stick in evidence that Esquerra Unida deputy Rosa Pérez delivered to the public prosecutor at the time, which contained the recordings Benavent had made to various popular leaders. This memory, a Kingston brand, was a copy of another, an Intenso brand, owned by Mariano López, the money junkie’s ex-father-in-law, and who affirms that he found it on a computer that was in a country house where he owned and where he lived usually coincided when he was married to his daughter. In the audios is the recording where Rus allegedly counted a wad of money.
“It wasn’t a legalized USB stick, its dump was not authorized by anyone and there was no chain of custody,” said Rus’ attorney, who pointed out that both Pérez and López “made a greatest hits selection” and tampered with them. . . “Without him there would be no Taula case,” he judged. His motion, joined by many other attorneys, was dismissed by the court pending the outcome of the expert test conducted by that party and after reassuring prosecutors that the custody was correct that the UCO was analyzing the Kingston flash drive and that, as evidenced, in the two memories “the audios are exactly the same and not tampered with”. Other petitions alleging that these audios were stolen from Benavent by his former father-in-law were also denied.
The court has pieced together the parts of 16 fictitious zombie workers who appear to have been hired in public companies reporting to the Ministry of Education (Ciegsa) and the Provincial Council of Valencia (Imelsa).
In the Ciegsa case, prosecutors point out that it was former regional secretary Máximo Caturla who hired “at least four people” “on the orders of Alfonso Rus”, of whom he was one of his trusted leaders, all affiliated or PP supporters. He warned him that “they would not perform any function within the company and would effect a diversion of public funds for the personal benefit of the accused”.
As for Imelsa, the public company was used “with the clear purpose of political and personal patronage” to “distribute favors with public funds,” according to the state ministry. The people hired knew, according to the letter, that they would not be doing any work in Imelsa and that their recruitment was in the “personal, professional or partisan” interests of Rus, Benavent and Emilio Llopis, Rus’ chief of staff.
Among those hired was a footballer from the Olímpic de Xàtiva, of which Rus was the chairman, an unemployed housewife from the same city, or a personal friend of the former provincial president of the PP. But in addition, Imelsa paid the salaries of two workers of the communications company La Gráfica, which the owner, Jose Adolfo Vedri, recognized, who returned the money collected. José Esterlich also returned it, rented for his friendship with Benavent.
Another six contracts were concluded in the joint-stock company, three of which were associated with the PP, but another three were associated with the PSPV. In addition to Cañizares, the prosecutor points to two others. “Taking advantage of the situation created, the accused Rafael Rubio, director of the public company of the PSOE, far from denouncing the situation as director of Imelsa, asked the manager Marcos Benavent for the favor of hiring two people close to the socialist party who was on strike,” prosecutors explain. Rubio is also listed as a defendant in the Azud conspiracy for allegedly taking bribes for failing to denounce irregular meetings at the Valencia City Council of employees and relatives of former mayor Rita Barberá.