The orders were given by Tomás Villanueva. The final decisions came from Tomás Villanueva’s office. Tomás Villanueva controlled and supervised. The others did not know anything, they were unaware in 2005 that the purchase of a plot of land and a building for the Ministry of Economy of Castilla y León had 20 million additional costs and favored related companies. Because everything was planned by the Minister of Economy; everything, according to the main defendants of the Black Pearl case of urban corruption of the Board for that controversial acquisition. This Wednesday, May 8, after three months, the summons have concluded in the Provincial Court of Valladolid, which have followed one another with a common tone: pointing out the person who was former Minister of Economy and former Vice President of the Board, who died in 2017.
The origin of the case is in a complex of buildings in Arroyo de la Encomienda (Valladolid) that cost 60.5 million euros, 10.5 more than the estimated amount. In addition, the department paid another 10 million corresponding to the developer, Urban Proyecta. Also part of the case is the purchase of land for the construction of an inoperative industrial estate in Portillo (Valladolid), with a possible diversion of 3.4 million.
Villanueva, who has been blamed, was the head of the main political parties, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for a total of 79 years in prison and million-dollar fines. Six businessmen and five former politicians have sat in the boat. The public ministry questions how the alleged orders of the former counselor were carried out so rigorously and without objection.
The sessions began on March 4, after 11 years of instruction. The first to speak was the complainant, Jesús Carlón, who warned of “barbarities and absurdities” experienced when he was manager of Gesturcal, the public company involved. “Handpicked appointments” and favors between positions abounded when it was decided to acquire the building for the Ministry of Economy, nicknamed “Black Pearl” after a pirate movie.
Another key name in the sessions was Pablo Trillo-Figueroa, director of Gesturcal when the high appraisals arrived. Trillo reaffirmed that he warned Juan Vicente Herrera, then regional president, of the absurdity of the extra costs. “Herrera told me that he would study the issue, that I should keep him informed,” said the now PP attorney in the Cortes, who explained that those who knew the details were “the counselor and senior officials.”
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After Villanueva’s death, in 2017 due to natural causes and the day after the Treasury investigated 83 bank accounts, the big names were the former Deputy Ministers of Economy Rafael Delgado and Begoña Hernández, both one step below Villanueva. They and Juan Carlos Sacristán, immersed in Gesturcal, are now being asked for 11 years in prison. The lawyers of these former senior officials have maintained the same strategy: trying to prove that their clients barely knew the goings-on of the counseling and that the decisions corresponded exclusively to the deceased.
On April 24, former vice counselors Delgado and Hernández and the also implicated Sacristán spoke. The investigations revealed that his relationships with the aforementioned businessmen transcended from the professional to the personal, since Delgado bought two homes in Santander from the businessman Alberto Esgueva, exonerated during the trial, and from his wife he bought a house in an urbanization near Valladolid. .
Villanueva’s resume shows his ancestry on the Board, 18 years as a director in the organizational chart and two as vice president of Herrera, who referred to him as a “personal friend” during his visit to the Court as a witness, from where he came out whistling, and that he defended the purchase of the space: “It made sense.” “I am aware of the interest and the efforts regarding the Arroyo building and the intervention of Gesturcal due to an almost confidential comment by Pablo Trillo, who conveyed his personal concern to me,” he stated, since Trillo expressed his “concern and doubts” to him: “The prices considered were, in their opinion, very high, very expensive or very high.” Herrera maintained that he had not spoken to anyone about the case and had trusted the judgment of Villanueva and the Gesturcal team, later investigated by the judge.
Delgado proclaimed himself “totally innocent” of the crimes attributed: prevarication, bribery, influence peddling, revelation of secrets, embezzlement of public funds and fraud against the Administration. “All the orders were given by the then Minister of Economy and Employment, Tomás Villanueva,” he insisted and added to the then head of the Treasury, Pilar del Olmo: “The decisions were made by both counselors, the rest of us had nothing else to say.” . Del Olmo, cited a few weeks before, reiterated that she was unaware of the operation.
Begoña Hernández, Delgado’s successor, tried to break away, alleging that she only found out about the acquisition when everything was signed and that she was suspicious of the prices. Delgado’s successor in the vice-counsel’s office settled her appearance by pointing to Villanueva’s “orders.”
Indications of a high expense, justifications of the relevance of the operation, a shrug of the shoulders to dismiss guilt and the shadow of the former counselor as a muñidor have set the tone of the trial, which this Wednesday concluded with the report of the prosecutor, who is suspicious, as the other accusations, that the whole matter rests on the deceased: “They have tried to make us see that they were following orders from the then counselor, but if they did not agree it was easy for them, they could resign and not carry out the events that are the subject of this trial ”.
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