The Second Section of the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands is holding this Tuesday (9:15 a.m.) the pre-trial hearing against the organizers of a Romeo Santos concert in Palma, for whom the Prosecutor's Office is asking for 17 years in prison for fraud, by keeping the money from the entries.
According to the prosecutor, these people rescheduled and finally canceled Romeo Santos' planned concerts without returning the money for the tickets and diverting the claims to the points of sale to avoid responding directly to them.
Specifically, on April 16, 2016, they scheduled the celebration of the Romeo Santos concert at the Palma Arena Velodrome and proceeded to advertise the event mainly through social networks. They also scheduled a festival in which the artist would perform in April in Valencia.
Ticket purchases could be made in various ways, whether through points of sale, public relations and ticket offices, or through a website.
The money collected at points of sale and public relations was delivered to two of the defendants and the tickets paid through the official website were deposited directly into a bank account, owned by one of the defendants. For their part, the ticket holders kept the money themselves and at the time of the concert it was delivered to the promoters.
The prosecutor points out that apart from establishing different means of payment to purchase tickets and carrying out an advertising campaign limited to using social networks at little economic cost, hardly any activity was carried out to guarantee the proper organization of the scheduled concerts.
In this way, the defendants, sole administrators of the companies promoting the event, did not carry out any promotion of the concert except through social networks, which does not involve any expense. In addition, they announced that the concert would be held at the Palma Arena but only a portion was paid to reserve the use of the facilities, adds the Public Ministry.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, authorization to carry out the concerts was not requested from the SGAE nor was it contracted with any support services company in the production of this type of events. Likewise, no hotel or flight reservations were made for Mallorca and Valencia and, despite having hardly spent any money on the production of the event, they made sufficient publicity about the concerts, with the prosecutor maintaining that they did so to create the appearance that Romeo Santos was going to come.
Finally, in April 2016, through a statement spread on social networks, the entity announced the rescheduling of the artist's tour in Europe, justifying this decision to a change within the structure of the company, without it really existing, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
In this way, the concerts would be held on July 29 in Valencia and on July 30 in Palma. The statement also explained that previous tickets would be valid and that those who could not attend would receive a refund at the same point of sale where the tickets were purchased.
However, users who wanted a refund for the tickets - except those who had purchased them through the ticket offices - did not receive a response through the emails indicated in the statement and the promoter did not return the money, limiting itself to centralize claims for returns at a point of sale, thus avoiding the defendants having to face these claims directly.
The letter continues by recalling that on June 22, 2016, one of the accused left his position, and a second defendant was appointed new administrator, without agreeing on any return of the amounts obtained.
Through a statement issued on July 14, the new administrator reported that due to logistical and technical problems they were forced to cancel the tour in Valencia and Palma, and indicated that the amount of the tickets would be refunded - all had been sold.
On the other hand, regarding the Romeo Santos concert scheduled for April 15 and 16 in Valencia, on April 4, said date was canceled and a new one was proposed for July 29. Through social networks, it was also indicated that the tickets purchased would be valid for the new date, but finally the festival was also canceled.
As part of this festival, one of the accused purchased a table for six people for the sum of 2,500 euros, an amount transferred to an account whose owner was the wife of one of the accused. According to the prosecutor, she did not return the money despite the cancellation of the concert.
As for the Palma concert, the money collected at the ticket booths was returned in full, since they themselves were the ones who accumulated it until the concert was held, but the money obtained through points of sale was given to a person, who in turn time he handed it over to one of the defendants.
The prosecutor considers, therefore, that the defendants acted with the intention of keeping the amounts collected from the sale of tickets for the concerts that they never properly organized, limiting themselves to establishing different collection formulas and later suspending and canceling the events with generic explanations. and without establishing an adequate platform for the return of paid tickets.
Therefore, the Prosecutor's Office insists, they never had the intention of holding the concerts or returning the tickets, only creating a serious appearance of doing so but limiting themselves to obtaining illicit benefits.
The Public Ministry considers the facts constituting two crimes - one continued - of fraud, and requests for three of the accused five years in prison and fines of 3,000 euros, in addition to special disqualification from promoting events for ten years. Likewise, the fourth defendant is interested in two years in prison.
The accused, at the request of the prosecutor, must also compensate the victims – a total of 306 – in the amounts swindled, which amount to 56,619 euros.
