The Supreme Court has confirmed this Monday the sentence handed down by the National Court in the separate piece known as the “pope’s visit”, where a corporate structure created by Francisco Correa to obtain illegal awards of contracts from different administrations and public entities is declared proven. , and specifically of the organization and operation of the so-called “Correa group” in Valencia, or Valencian branch, a group led by Correa and Pablo Crespo during the years 2004 to 2008, and the previous actions aimed at obtaining the award of public contracts.
Specifically, the High Court confirms the sentences received by the ringleader Correa, aged 13 years and 7 months, and his number two, Pablo Crespo, aged 15 years and five months.
The sentence considers as a proven fact that in October 2005, the organization led by Correa, having prior knowledge of the visit of His Holiness Benedict XVI to Valencia, on the occasion of the celebration of the V World Meeting of Families on the 7th, On July 8 and 9, 2006, he began a series of actions aimed at obtaining the illegal award of the provision of services and supplies necessary for the development of said event, carrying out negotiations with the then Minister of Agriculture, the late Juan Cotino, to obtain the award of the contract to supply the rental of the screens and sound systems. Several of the defendants decided that the commission and the cost of entering into this contract for the supply of video screens, public address systems and sound should not be carried out directly by the V EMF Foundation, but by the public entity Radiotelevisión Valenciana (RTVV) in favor of a shell company -Teconsa-, which in turn subcontracted -when this was prohibited- with the company Impacto Producciones SL.
RTVV awarded Teconsa, through a contracting file through a negotiated procedure without publicity processed as a matter of urgency, the supply of video, sound and public address screen equipment for RTVV under a rental regime, for an amount of 6,460,000 euros (7,493 600 euros, with VAT), much higher than the real cost of the work necessary for its execution, which meant an additional cost charged to RTVV public funds of 3,205,375.11 euros and a correlative illicit enrichment in favor of the defendants who intervened decisively in said adjudication.
The award to Teconsa had already been determined in advance, since its employees were working for it, as well as the subcontracted companies Apogee Telecomunicaciones and Impacto Producciones, and also RTVV.
It was a direct adjudication, the file being prepared in an outdated manner, a file plagued with irregularities: such as the choice of the negotiated procedure, when the appropriate one due to the amount and because the urgency was not justified, was the tender, specifications without price and with a lack of definition regarding the service that was tendered, lack of proof of invitations and the presentation of offers, lack of technical capacity of the successful bidder to carry out such works -it was a construction company-, which it had to subcontract being prohibited, intervention of contractors in the drafting of the specifications and the contract and lack of budgetary allocation for the aforementioned expense.
The sentence of the National Court condemned 19 defendants, for different crimes of prevarication, embezzlement, fraud against the Administration, falsification of an official document, money laundering and crimes against the Public Treasury, some as perpetrators, others as necessary cooperators,
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