Historic irregular funding of the Valencia PP political party reaches court

Starting this Tuesday, the Valencia Court judges part of the Imelsa case, where possible corruption of the closest collaborators of the then mayor of Valencia Rita Barberá has been investigated in connection with the illicit financing of the PP in the 2007 and 2011 elections.

In this stage that the Second Section of the Court will judge, the former vice mayor of Valencia, Alfonso Grau, is being prosecuted; the former municipal secretary of the PP, Mari Carmen García Fuster; the former manager of the Valencia Tourism Foundation José Salinas and the former head of the Valencian Community Foundation for Urban Innovation Juan Eduardo Santón.

According to the initial calendar agreed upon by the parties, the trial is expected to probably last until February 13 and that the statements of the accused will take place after those of the witnesses and experts on February 5 and 6.

Thus, on Tuesday the previous issues will be presented and 8 agents from the UCO of the Guardia Civil will testify. The statements of the Prosecutor’s witnesses are scheduled for the 24th, 25th, 29th and 30th, and on the 31st those of a State Comptroller, two other Guardia Civil investigators and five witnesses of José Salinas.

Between February 1 and 3, more witnesses called by the defence will testify, the accused are scheduled to testify on the 5th and 6th, and the 8th, 12th, and 13th are reserved for the presentation of final conclusions and reading of reports.

Grau, 83, is accused of the crimes of embezzlement and bribery in its continuous form, Fuster of a continuous crime of bribery and Santón and Salinas of continuous embezzlement.

Consequently, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office demands a sentence of nine years in prison for the man who was Barberá’s “right-hand man”, one year for García Fuster and five for Salinas and Santon.

In this piece, fifty councillors and advisors of the PP from the time of Rita Barberá were investigated for an alleged crime of money laundering committed before the 2015 elections by depositing 1,000 euro into the party’s accounts, which, according to the investigators maintained, would have been returned in some cases with 500 bills of undetermined origin.

However, that part of the Imelsa macro-case – the one known as the “smurfing” – was archived in December 2021 after more than five years of investigation and was also archived in relation to the alleged responsibility of the PP as a legal entity.

Thus, piece A, which reaches court today, has been limited to alleged corrupt operations in the 2007 and 2011 elections. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office maintains that funds would have been diverted from public entities such as Tourism Valencia or the Foundation for Urban Innovation, which relied on public funds to communication companies that had carried out electoral actions for the PP of Valencia.

Grau was already sentenced for bribery to nine months and one day for accepting as a gift two luxury watches from a businessman who had signed sixteen contracts with the Valencian City Council between 2006 and 2015.

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