11.02.09 - 13:39 -
Former mayor Julián Muñoz is one of three people who must pay the damages. / JOSELE-LANZA
After 15 years of looting and lawsuits Marbella Town Hall is finally starting to see millions of euros in damages, at least on paper. The most recent sum awarded is the biggest yet: 50.69 million euros. This must be paid by three people: the former mayor Julián Muñoz, the lawyer Modesto Perodia and the former GIL councillor Esteban Guzmán. This was decided in a recent sentence given by the national auditing tribunal which has found the three men guilty of irregularities committed between 1997 and 2000 in the municipal firm Contratas 2000 S.L.
The sentence, which could still be appealed against, finds the three members of the company’s board of administrators directly responsible for funds lost from the Town Hall coffers through Contratas 2000. The losses, according to the tribunal, amounted to 34.99 million euros, a sum which, with the interest that has accumulated over the years, has gone up to almost 51 million.
The figure is “spectacular” said the Mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, who stressed that sentences like this are revealing the extent of the systematic pilfering that went on at the Town Hall for years.
The 51 million euros disappeared over a three year period through one firm. Marbella had as many as 32 municipal companies for as long as ten years. How much is that? The auditing tribunal itself thinks that we could be looking at more than 988 million euros. They are still investigating.
TV fees
Earlier this week the judge in charge of the Malaya case rejected the appeal lodged by Julián Muñoz against the court’s decision to seize the 188,000 euros the former mayor was to be paid for giving TV interviews on Telecinco. The judge has refused to authorise Muñoz to use the funds to pay for his defence and recalled that the former mayor had been ordered to pay 400,000 euros to cover the damages he is likely to be ordered to pay after the trial.
