The largest fraud in the history of the Canaries

[Perikles]

Unbelievable, this report about the Ayuntamiento of Santa Cruz paying 50 million for a piece of land which they already owned. If I've understood it correctly, it finished up with one politician making a profit of 109 million without risking a cent of his own funds. Monumentally complicated. One commenter says they deserve the Nobel Prize for fraud.

[Janet]

And this is what it's all about .... the "mamotreto" they call it, a "white elephant" I suppose you'd say. Will it come down? Will it stay up? Who knows, but it's illegal with knobs on from any of several points of view. There's even allegations of corruption over the guarding of the bloody thing while the legal wrangles continue (over the purchase, over the ownership, over the building contract, over the land designation ... ) - with the council apparently paying someone (wonder who) three times what should have been paid for security ...

Both new President of Cabildo Carlos Alonso and Santa Cruz mayor José Bermúdez have damned previous mayor Zerolo with faint praise ... let's condemn him only when he's convicted, they said, or something like that ...

[Janet]

The first jail sentence ever given in the Canaries for corrupt planning ... three councillors and three functionaries ... demolition at their own expense, and JAIL!

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Result!!!!!!!!   

[El Profesor]

Hallelujah

Arona  . . . . tremble

[Janet]

I've posted this on my website this morning:

The first verdict in the Canaries that will see politicians and local government employees go to prison for planning corruption has been given in Santa Cruz over the so-called Caso Mamotreto, the monstrous and controversial building that was constructed in 2008 - completely illegally and corruptly, it has now been judged - and which came to be called a mamotreto, a "white elephant". Of the seven defendants, six have been sentenced to prison (between two and three years), demolition of the illegal buliding at their own personal expense, and a ban on holding office.

Activist party Sí Se Puede, indeed, congratulated the two social collectives for starting the whole process of denuncias against the "mamotreto" and the municipal planning crimes behind its construction. More importantly given the pressure that must subsequently have been brought to bear, the party congratulated them for not capitulating in the fight. The two organizations which led the campaign are the Asociación Tinerfeña de Amigos de la Naturaleza (ATAN) and the Asociación de Amigos de la Playa de Las Teresitas, Anaga y su Litoral.

Si Se Puede called yesterday's judgment "exemplary". According to the judge, in the era when Miguel Zerolo (Coalición Canaria) was mayor, "irregularities were normal". This might therefore not be the last such judgment that comes out of further similar investigations in Santa Cruz, and elsewhere of course ...

[Guanche]

I have to say while these sentences are good they are far from satisfactory. Two to three years? hardly encouraging since hardly any real jail time will be served. I have heard that any custodial sentence not in excess of two years and only coming from one charge the sentence is automatically suspended?
The wife's reaction was where are the big fish? Zerolo being the biggist.

[Janet]

I suspect that this is one reason one the minimum sentence was 2 years 3 months ...

And the big fish? Oh they're coming ... I am now sure of it.