Juan Bernardo Fuentes, a former PSOE deputy arrested for alleged involvement in the so-called Mediator case, has been released on charges after giving a statement all morning before the judge.
The politician is being investigated for bribery, falsehood, money laundering, influence peddling and belonging to an organized group. The prosecutor has not requested imprisonment as he does not appreciate a risk of escape or destruction of evidence. As reported by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, there is no class action or private prosecution.
Of the 13 arrested for this plot of alleged extortion of businessmen in the livestock and food sectors in exchange for receiving favorable treatment in inspections or in the process of European aid, only the retired general of the Civil Guard Francisco Javier Espinosa has been imprisoned. .
The Mediator plot, which would be headed by the now former Socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes, the General of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa Navas and the Canarian businessman Antonio Navarro Taraconte, asked for an “economic toll” of 5,000 euros from the businessmen he recruited Under the promise of “obtaining privileges” in terms of public procurement, they met with them in the Congress of Deputies and at the headquarters of the Civil Guard in Madrid to appear “serious” and ended up in “big parties” in clubs and hotels with an average cost of about 3,000 euros, according to the summary of the case, to which Europa Press has had access.
In a report, the Prosecutor’s Office speaks of “the existence of a plot made up of authorities, senior public officials and other intermediary persons of those who offered different businessmen the possibility of obtaining privileges in the field of public procurement or other manifestations or derived benefits of the public sector in exchange for the payment of gifts, gratuities, deliveries of money or other gifts”.
The alleged network was “perfectly defined and coordinated,” says the prosecutor, who places Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, then socialist deputy, at its “upper vertex”; his nephew Taishet Fuentes, general director of Livestock, and Francisco Espinosa Navas, division general of the Civil Guard.
Along with them, the National Police, in another report, places the Canarian businessman Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, who would perform functions of “mediator” between the alleged leaders and the captured businessmen.
The reports explain that “the first step” that the interested businessmen had to take was to pay 5,000 euros, as an “economic toll”, to the Vega Tetir Sports Association, which was chaired by the former Socialist deputy.
Navarro Tacoronte himself declared in court on February 22, 2022 that they were going to “visit” Congress, then to have lunch “and continued partying the rest of the day, an average of between 3,000 and 3,500 euros “per night” which employers paid.
The Prosecutor’s Office details that Espinosa Navas was also in charge of “receiving” the captured businessmen and, where appropriate, taking them to “units in the General Command of the Civil Guard based on Calle Guzmán El Bueno, in Madrid, which It was essential to be able to give an appearance of seriousness and power to the criminal plot and to generate trust”.
The plot focused on “businessmen with business expectations in the Special Zone of the Canary Islands, characterized by its special tax benefits,” according to the Public Ministry.
“We are not committing any crime but we are bribing,” Navarro Tacoronte even said to one of the “peninsular businessmen” they would have captured, Antonio Bautista Prado, in a conversation held on November 12, 2022.
The investigation began after the complaint filed, in December 2021, by the until a few days ago director of Sports of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Ángel Luis Pérez Peña, who warned of fraudulent charges on his bank card for an amount of 2,575 euros.
Pérez Peña, who resigned from his position on January 31 citing personal reasons, then reported those charges on his card. From there, the Police investigated them and determined that they had been carried out by Navarro Tacoronte, who was the holder of the prepaid cards, which led to his arrest in January 2022.
Navarro Tacoronte assured in court that Pérez Peñas was aware of the charges that he had denounced, since he had his “acquiescence, in addition to being the real and final beneficiary of the denounced purchases.” And to prove it, he said he had WhatsApp conversations between the two and handed over two mobile phones, which are the “origin of the plot,” says the police report.
Also in his statement, the alleged manager stated that he had strong evidence regarding “numerous crimes” related to corruption that “different political officials in the Canary Islands” would have committed. “In short, they would have organized themselves in a group reserved for illicitly enriching themselves,” says the Police.
With the overturning of these devices, the Police compiled a series of evidences about the existence of a criminal organization supposedly led by the deputy, who, “taking advantage of the ancestry that his position gave him, would cause the perception of gifts and perks of an economic sign by various businessmen and ranchers”.
According to the ‘Corruption Report’ of the Provincial Police Station of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the former deputy, his nephew, the general and Navarro Tacoronte, “would use front men and mules to receive bank transfers of improper origin, as well as forgery of invoices that justify these”.
The Police points out that the investigation carried out proves “without any doubt” that the criminal organization, based in the Canary Islands, would be dedicated to the commission of crimes related to corruption, extortion or documentary falsification.
And he emphasizes that the meetings of the deputy – whom he catalogs with the aliases Tito, Tito Berni or Juambe – and the alleged mediator with the businessmen “culminated in large parties in clubs and at the Hotel Victoria”, where both were staying.
In addition, he realizes that there were lunches and dinners with some of the two personalities mentioned, “according to availability” and “paid for by the businessmen.” In these meetings, businessmen presented their growth plans and public figures said what they could do for them. That was when “the delivery of envelopes containing perks in cash” was made, money that was delivered “to the intermediary and he to the personality.”
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