A "technical" error during the investigation phase has forced the four defendants to be acquitted of a million-dollar scam involving alleged "Chinese bonds" from the year 1913. The Gipuzkoa Court has released the defendants, without even having held trial, when estimating the allegation of one of the defenses in relation to the investigation of the case. The alleged fraud, which was going to be prosecuted throughout this week in the Third Section of the Gipuzkoa Court, could amount, according to the theses of the Prosecutor's Office, to between three and four million euros and affect some 90 people .
The three men and the woman allegedly responsible for this deception through the sale of Chinese debt bonds faced a possible sentence of six years and three months in prison, since they had been accused of a continuous crime of fraud and another of belonging to criminal group.
The Public Ministry, which also demanded a fine of 5,400 euros, also requested that the defendants return the amounts allegedly defrauded from nine of their victims who filed claims. The judicial proceeding also included six other allegedly affected individuals who had waived the compensation that may correspond to them for this scam that, as a whole, could have affected nearly 90 investors.
The events dated back to August 2003, when one of the defendants contacted a US citizen who offered him the possibility of investing in bearer public debt securities issued by the Republic of China in 1913. These bonds, which in the Currently not recognized as "legitimate financial instruments by the markets" nor by the current People's Republic of China, they are called "The Chinese Govermen: Five per cent. Reorganization Gold Loan of 1913".
After meeting with this woman, the defendant would have raised the possibility of acting "jointly" with the rest of the defendants, among whom was his then wife, in order to "attract investors" for the bonds among their own family, friends and acquaintances . In this way, the defendants allegedly tried to convince their victims by promising them "high returns" and assuring them that the bonds purchased "would be recognized by the current Chinese government."
However, the four defendants have now been acquitted, after, at the beginning of the oral trial, one of the defenses took advantage of the moment to raise the previous questions to explain that both the statement of the defendants and various procedures carried out during the phase of instruction were made "out of time".
A circumstance that, as he has alleged, has caused the "helplessness" of the defendants as their right to effective judicial protection has been violated, for which reason he has demanded their free acquittal.
The Prosecutor's Office has opposed this request because it understands that the request was "untimely" and "surprising" since it had not been raised previously, while maintaining that there had been no "defencelessness", as the defendants had been assisted by their lawyers at all times during the investigation.
However, before the request for acquittal, to which the rest of the defenses have later joined, the court has made a first recess of half an hour to deliberate, which has subsequently been extended by two more hours until it has finally adopted the decision to acquit. to the four defendants.
For this, the presiding magistrate explained that the request was not time-barred because "it can be raised at any time" by "affecting the right of defense" and because the order in which the extension of the investigation was issued was made out of time. which entails that the actions that were carried out later are "null and void".
The magistrate has also advanced that in the next few days the court will resolve all these issues in a "motivated" resolution that may be appealed, although it has already anticipated "that the sentence will be acquittal."
