The former financial director of the Ballet de Catalunya and former treasurer of Ibstage, Marina Quera, has been sentenced by the Provincial Court of Barcelona to 18 months in prison for a crime of misappropriation. The court has found her “criminally responsible” for the crime she committed as a position of trust of the ballet company, between 2016 and 2019. And it also requires her to compensate the Fundació Ballet de Catalunya in the amount of 27,637 euros, plus the costs of the trial and legal interest on the money stolen from the date of the sentence.
According to the ruling, during the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019, the defendant made transfers to the detriment of the foundation from the entity's bank account to an account owned by her. An amount that amounted overall to 22,576 euros and that she returned a few days or a few months after receiving it.
Likewise, between 2017 and 2019, he diverted 27,673 euros from the foundation's funds, which he definitively incorporated into his assets through transfers or through cash refunds with the foundation card.
Added to these proven facts is that the accused issued several invoices against the foundation for a total amount of 15,050 euros for services provided between April 2017 and February 2019, whose concepts were accounting, tax, labor, administration, cleaning, production and others.
"Transfers were made to her account and she justified them, although the person who carried out the audit of the accounts of the Fundació Ballet de Catalunya has not found justification for the amount of 27,637 euros for which she has finally been convicted," explains the prosecution lawyer, Mireia Balaguer.
If the sentence were carried out, the Fundació Ballet de Catalunya, which currently has its studio and rehearsal rooms in the city of Terrassa, would have recovered more than three quarters of the sum stolen by its manager at the time in which its president, Leo Sorribes , and its artistic director, Elías García, placed all their trust in her.
"In addition to the financial damage, Ms. M.Q.C.'s actions have caused significant damage to the image and reputation of the Foundation in the public opinion - alleges the Ballet de Catalunya in a statement -. Her improper management of a check resulted in the inclusion of the Foundation in the RAI (Registry of Unpaid Acceptances) for a period of one and a half years, seriously limiting the foundation's ability to access financing."
The Provincial Court would have been benevolent with this sentence, points out the prosecution lawyer, since the manager was accused of a larger amount of money and more crimes: unfair administration and falsification of documents. Between 2017 and 2019, a period that coincided with the Ballet de Catalunya's residency at the Terrassa Cultural Center, the former manager allegedly stole up to 97,000 euros from the company's accounts, of which she would return or repay about half.
At the time when irregularities were detected, Marina Quera was removed by notarial act from her position as representative of the Foundation and from her act as trustee of the Ballet de Catalunya Foundation.
According to Sorribes, the CCT had sent a burofax to the president of the ballet company alleging breach of contract due to a sudden debt of six months for the rent of the theater room.
The ruling does not disqualify Marina Quera, currently director of the Ballet Contemporani de Catalunya (BCC), from continuing to perform a job function.
