CORRUPTION AT MARBELLA TOWN HALL
The former planning consultant at Marbella Town Hall was found guilty of siphoning off municipal funds to private firms between 1991 and 1995
23.01.09 - 13:58 -
In court this morning. / EFE
A verdict has now been reached in one of Marbella’s biggest corruption trials so far, “Caso Saqueo”. This morning the National Court has sentenced Juan Antonio Roca to six years and ten months in prison for embezzling 36 million euros of municipal funds 15 years ago. Roca, a former Town Hall planning consultant, is allegedly the brains behind the Malaya corruption case.
Harsher penalties, however, have gone to José Luis Sierra, formerly the lawyer of the late Jesús Gil y Gil, and Jorge Castel, considered to be the “Saqueo” accountant, who have been given nine years each.
The other three accused, municipal employees, Eduardo Gonzálvez and Francisco Javier Herrera, and the widow of the former manager of one of the municipal companies involved, Purificación Notario, have been acquitted.
The Public Anti-corruption Prosecutor had called for up to ten years for Roca, Sierra, Castel and Gonzálvez for embezzlement and forgery of public documents, and eight years for the others, for embezzlement. The trial was held in Madrid between October 10th and November 27th last year and was awaiting the judge’s verdict until today.
The judge’s sentence fills 121 pages and explains how Roca, Sierra and Castel conceived and followed through their plan between 1991 and 1995, when they carried out “coordinated actions aimed at diverting funds from the Town Hall through municipal companies”.
