Supreme Court to investigate Andalucía ex-Presidents Chaves and Griñán on ERE case

Other former top Junta councillors and many business people also involved

Manuel Chaves (l)
José Antonio Griñán (r)

SEVILLE -- Judge Mercedes Alaya sent documents about the ERE case in Andalucía to the Supreme Court in the belief that there may be a case to answer regarding bribery and malfeasance. Now the Court confirms that it needs to look into the case, that it sees the same indications of irregularities as the judge. Several politicians, former councillors and diverse business people are allegedly involved. While the case has been around for at least a year, the two top men of the PSOE and most of the rest of the impugned have managed to keep under the radar, mainly because they are aforados (with parliamentary protection). Manuel Chaves and others have asked to appear in court voluntarily. Griñán had not yet done so at time of writing. This case is likely to become a cause celèbre for the opposition PP party in Andalucía, as it is being accosted from all sides in large and significant corruption cases all over the country (Click on CORRUPTION in the sidebar cloud of labels to get the idea.). The PSOE party has refused to pay litigation costs for the pair or any of the others involved because 'they are innocent'. 

Forty charged in Tráfico false documentation case

Two are notaries, several gestorías involved

Jefatura de Tráfico, Sevilla

SEVILLE -- In a press release, the Guardia Civil's Tráfico unit has charged forty people on false public documentation issues. Among them are buyers and sellers of vehicles, notaries, gestores, and others. Investigations began ten months ago when the GC GIAT unit noticed certain irregularities in the information received in various documents presented online and at the Tráfico centres of the province. For example, vehicle transference documents carried the names of people who had died some six months before the documents' dates. Bills didn't look right either in many cases, as did documents regarding representation rights. Two notaries were charged because it was proved that people on the documents had never been seen by them, therefore the signatures had to be false. All those imputed in these cases have appeared before magistrates and we will be reporting on the outcome as soon as information is available.

Princess is charged in corruption case and asked to resign dynastic rights

Husband Iñaki Urdangarín is main suspect in the Noòs case

Duke and Duchess of
Palma de Mallorca

MADRID -- When King Felipe IV gave his address when he was proclaimed King, he asked his subjects for transparency and exemplarity. At the time, his sister, the Infanta Cristina, and her husband Iñaki Urdangarín were immersed in a case of corruption. The princess had not yet been impugned in the Noòs case, but the investigative judge decided to do so last month on the grounds that she knew her husband, the Duke of Palma de Mallorca, had been hiding money offshore, and other such charges. Now, King Felipe IV has asked his sister to give up her dynastic rights (she is sixth in line to the throne), which would not affect the couple's four children, who will take one step in the royal hierarchy. Princess Cristina had been asked to take this step by her father, King Juan Carlos I, when the case first came to light, but she refused.

Map of Corruption in Spain (to date)

Avalanch of cases make it difficult for media to follow

Click HERE to link to page

MADRID -- On Wednesday last week El Mundo published an interactive map of corruption in Spain. It is in Spanish and we have not been able to translate it, but if you click on your Autonomous Community, you will see how many and where the cases are. It is an impressive document that doesn't need a great deal of Spanish to understand. For some of the major cases, please see articles that have appeared here: Who's who in the largest PP corruption cases, Spain loses billions on tax evasion and errors, Pope Francis: "Corruption is worse than sin", Competition authorities to fine car dealers for price fixing, or just click on CORRUPTION on the label cloud in the sidebar.

32 arrested in a new anti-corruption operation

Operación Madeja covers seven regional communities

One of many

SEVILLA -- Under the orders of Judge Mercedes Alaya, the Guardia Civil carried out a massive operation in seven different autonomous regions but centered in Seville. Called Operación Madeja or Operación Enredadera (approx. Operation Network or Vine, as in climbing plant, respectively -- the media has it under either name) resulted in 32 arrests on charges principally regarding bribes on construction projects. Among the arrested are politicians of PP, IU and Coalición Canaria), all level civil servants and employees of Councils, Diputaciones and the Ministry of Development, among others. Charges range from 'arranging' public contracts to crimes such as money laundering, false trading, tax evasion and belonging to a criminal organization.//Operation Network had been under way for 15 months and expanded to 13 provinces (Sevilla, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Badajoz and Lanzarote).

Who's who in the largest PP corruption cases

Latest PP corruption scandals in Madrid put the party way behind in voter intention polls

SPAIN -- "The voters are absolutely fed up with all the corruption coming out now," said a supporter of the new alternative party, Podemos, at a rally the other day. Her opinion reflects the result of the latest poll by El País, which has put the PP and also the PSOE into a panic. This is just the latest in a string of scandals that have flowered over the last years, though by no means are these limited to the governing party. However, the list is so long that we can only present the PP cases below. Other cases will come up here as we can write about them. For that purpose we've done a Who's Who of the bigger cases that have come to court, with the proceedings as they stand on Sunday, November 2. (Those politicians, business people and others, below, are not part of the latest upheavel that has resulted in 53 arrests on a huge number of charges, some of whom are in jail, though -- we will be doing their list later.) Enjoy:

Treasury investigates Bankia for possible fiscal crime

MADRID – Yet another fraud recently risen to the surface from the muck: some 86 directors and executives of Bankia and/or Caja Madrid, to the value of some €15.5 million, all had access to individual credit cards issued by the banks themselves to its top people or to favoured customers’ executives. There was absolutely no control, no maxing out, on how or on what they were used, which accounts for items such as shopping (even for food), expensive travel and holidays, jewellery, etc. Some cards were used ‘only’ to €120,000, while others to significantly higher figures.//Without getting into too much detail (for fear of boring you, Dear Reader), the cases have now reached the desk of the judge in charge of the Bankia fraud case (yes, another one!), who the Anti-corruption Prosecutor has informed of possible tax evasion and other crimes.

(Editor’s Note: I suppose we’ll have to give some background to this case, too. Okay, we will, in due course… Maybe not: you can read all about it in El País in English.)

Granada Council relates the Alhambra fraud case with the ERE cases in Seville

GRANADA – The case of fraudulent tickets to the Alhambra was first discovered last year and, in true Spanish judiciary fashion, has only recently come to court. (More on the case coming soon, but it involves alleged irregularities in the sale of tickets and access control). The case has now taken a political turn, after the city Council wrote to the judge earlier in the week, alleging that political responsibilities are ‘evidently’ of the PSOE (in opposition in Granada) and the Junta de Andalucía. The letter, by Juan García Montero, Councillor for Culture and spokesperson for the Council, also demands

Spain fails through lack of lobbies regulation and transparency

MADRID – A report published last week by Transparency International states that Spain fails in ‘three crucial aspects’ regarding its political/business lobbies: transparency, integrity and equality of access. Lifting the Lid on Lobbying, as the project on which the report is based is called, goes on to say that this country lacks any legislation that guarantees adequate knowledge of who holds what influence in parliament, or how and on whom it is exerted, with what results and with what financial resources. Financed by the European Commission, The report considers that the Government ‘must carry out an analysis of the risks associated with lobbying, with the objective of creating legislation, thus ‘reducing the risk of corruption and improving the quality of democratic decision-making.’

Much ado about the same stupid things: Gibraltar vs corruption

GIBRALTAR (+Opinion) -- Gibraltar was in the news again over the summer. And now again, though less so, while La Línea builds a new entrance to the Rock – construction for which is likely to take a while and never be quite finished, more for political than practical reasons. Anything so long as it gets on the nerves of Gibraltarians, say some of the more truculent.