The former president of the Provincial Council and the PP of the province of Valencia Alfonso Rus, the former manager of Imelsa, Marcos Benavent, known as the 'money junkie' and his former father-in-law, Mariano López, have been acquitted in the case related to the award and provision of a call center service for the institution.
The Fifth Section of the Provincial Court of Valencia acquits the seven accused in this separate piece of the Imelsa case, in which alleged irregularities in the contracting of the Provincial Council's telephone service developed by the Servimun company have been investigated.
This case constitutes separate piece D of the so-called 'Taula-Imelsa case', whose trial was held between April 25 and June 5 of this year. In the conclusion process, the Prosecutor's Office withdrew the accusation for an eighth defendant, Fernando P.R., due to his state of health. The sentence, which was notified this Wednesday, can be appealed in cassation before the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court.
Along with the former president of the Valencia Provincial Council between July 2007 and July 2015, Alfonso R.T., accused in this procedure were the former manager of the public company Imelsa, Marcos Benavent, his former father-in-law and businessman José Mariano López, two officials of the Provincial Council -Salvador Deusa and Ricardo de Ángel- and two relatives of the owner of Servimun, Vicenta and Concepción Torregrosa.
The events date back to May 2013, when Imelsa awarded Servimun SLU the contract for a multi-channel service center (telephone and telematics) for almost 843,000 euros to provide information to taxpayers on certain municipal taxes. The contract was valid until December 31, 2015 and was not extended.
The Chamber understands that it has not been proven that Alfonso Rus had any participation in the award process, nor that “arbitrary or biased valuations” mediated the technical analysis of the offers presented to benefit Servimun to the detriment of the other bidders.
Regarding the development of the contract, for which Servimun SLU hired José Mariano López and his company Técnicas Legales Administrativas as advisor, the magistrates also do not consider it proven that the telephone or telematic services that the Contact Center was supposed to provide “were not attended to in their totality", but, "on the contrary, there was an oversizing of it."
The Court examines in the resolution each of the crimes for which the Public Ministry accused and concludes that the commission of none of them has been proven.
Thus, regarding the crime of administrative prevarication, it points out that the awarding of the contract to Servimun SLU “followed all the procedural steps for a contract of that nature with an amount greater than the 150,000 euros provided for in the Public Sector Contracts Law.”
Regarding the embezzlement of public funds, he specifies: “The amount indicated by the Public Prosecutor's Office can hardly be considered a diversion of public funds because their accusation is based on a conviction that we have already declared unproven, that of the rigged contract.”
Regarding the crime of influence peddling, the magistrates conclude that there is “no evidence” that allows them to affirm that Alfonso Rus “exerted any influence in the decision to award the contract (…) in search of a benefit for himself.” or for a third party”, nor that this possible influence was deployed by Marcos Benavent or José Mariano López.
Nor does the Court consider proven the concurrence of continued crimes of falsification in a commercial document and falsification in an official document, since “no alteration of the truth has occurred” in the contract documents analyzed.
Finally, the Chamber reaches the same conclusion regarding the crime of money laundering that the Prosecutor's Office attributed to José Mariano López and the sisters María de la Concepción and Vicenta T.G., since the figure of 198,835 euros cannot be considered “unusual or disproportionate.” which the Prosecutor's Office alludes to as payments from Servimun SLU to these defendants and which were duly declared to the Tax Agency in three tax years, among other arguments.
The PP ombudsman in Les Corts, Miguel Barrachina, has celebrated the acquittal of Alfonso Rus and has demanded an apology from the parties that according to him committed "persecution" against the former president of the 'popular' parties in the province.
On the other hand, the Ombudsman of Compromís, Joan Baldoví, has assured that "Rus has won the lottery today", but has warned that "he has many more chances to receive a harsh sentence."
Regarding Rus, which was facing eight years in prison, Barrachina has celebrated that "the innocent are innocent" with this court ruling, after "the unstoppable persecution against the leaders of the Popular Party" by other parties. A persecution that was committed "for decades" and "ruined his personal life", for which he has demanded an apology now that the former mayor of Xàtiva has also been acquitted of this Imelsa piece.
However, Baldoví recalled that the 'popular' people "denied Rus" by expelling him from the party "like Rita Barberá", former mayor of Valencia. "The hypocrisy of the PP is proverbial," he criticized, warning that Rus has "many more ballots to win not the lottery but a harsh sentence."
