Francisco Grau, the accountant of the corrupt plot led by the former PP minister Eduardo Zaplana, wants to know if the special disqualification from the exercise of his profession for a period of three years “refers to the collegiate profession of economist or to that of financier.” This is stated in a letter addressed to the fourth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia in which he requests a correction and complement of the sentence of the ‘Erial case’ that sentenced him on October 15 to a sentence of five years in prison for a crime of money laundering and a fine of 20 million euros, in addition to payment of procedural costs. This is the possibility of clarifying a sentence after it has been issued, provided for in the Criminal Procedure Law.
In the document, to which elDiario.es has had access, Grau’s defense recalls that the convicted man has the dual status of economist and lawyer, since he registered as a lawyer in 2017, a year before the arrests of ‘ Erial case’. His professional future after serving the prison sentence in the event of a final conviction depends on the clarification.
His participation in the events is linked to his status as a tax advisor. In fact, Joaquín Barceló ‘Pachano’, Zaplana’s confessed front man, assured in a telephone conversation intercepted by investigators that Grau was the “architect” of the corporate “engineering” of the corrupt plot. A thesis that fully supports the sentence.
The tax advisor, who was part of the board of directors of the bankrupt Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM), was the tax advisor for Zaplana and his family. The section of proven facts of the sentence proves that in the “distribution of functions” of the plot, the former PP politician “placed Paco Grau as financier” for the management of commissions in ‘offshore’ companies in tax havens, “of his closest circle of friends and that he had the necessary financial knowledge to give the appropriate orders to Beatriz García Paesa”, the niece of the famous spy in charge of managing the shell firms in Luxembourg.
The prosecutor, the ruling adds, “knew” the illicit origin of the funds. The convicted man also provided his services in the investment of laundered commissions in Andorra and Panama and in his return to Spain through real estate deals and use of large amounts of cash. It was he who “devised the corporate framework” of the plot, indicates the Valencia Court.
The “old woman’s account” by Paco Grau
The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard found in the search of her home the “old woman’s account”, the literal name of the computer file that detailed the accounting movements of the plot.
Paco Grau’s letter also regrets that the sentence imposes the payment of the procedural costs “without further precision”, for which he asks to “specify the fee.” The ruling also keeps the prosecutor’s assets seized “in order to guarantee compliance by the convicted persons with their pecuniary responsibilities.” Thus, a total of 473,211 euros remain blocked in bank accounts and investment funds, in addition to 40% of a home in Alicante and a Smart Fortwo vehicle. The funds confiscated from the plot amount to a total of 11.5 million euros.
The prosecutor’s defense recalls that among the pecuniary responsibilities that can be secured through bail or the seizure of assets is not the penalty of a fine, which would be “as much as imposing an early penalty.” Grau was sentenced to a fine of 20 million euros. The intervention of his assets seems “clearly excessive” to him.
The brief also raises the need to complement the sentence due to a “lack of consistent pronouncement” related to two previous issues raised by Francisco Grau’s defense in the oral trial: the alleged violations of the right to privacy and the secrecy of communications. .
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