Madeja Case: The conviction of four Adif workers closes the prosecution of a macro-plot of bribery of officials | Spain | The USA Print

He hank case, on the plot of bribery of officials and senior officials designed by the Seville company Fitonovo, closes with four new sentenced to jail. The National Court has punished three former managers and a technician from the public company Adif (Administrator of Railway Infrastructures) with minimum sentences —which do not exceed three years in prison— for participating in the rigging of contracts in favor of the Andalusian company, who paid them hundreds of thousands of euros and gave them gifts for a decade. With this sentence, issued on February 23 after the 14 defendants reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office, the court ends the prosecution of the seven pieces of this macro-cause, which has resulted in 36 convictions and more than half hundred acquitted.

This latest ruling by the National Court, whose presentation was given by magistrate Adoración María Riera, has focused on the bribery network created around Adif. The court considers it proven that Fitonovo created a criminal “corporate scheme”, which operated “in parallel to a legal commercial activity” and with which “he monopolized public contracts using illegal means, causing serious damage to the public interest.” The Seville company, which came to have its own box b, thus entered administrations at all levels (“both state, regional and local”); bought a “large number of officials and authorities” for at least 15 years (since 1995); and it carried out its activity throughout a “broad geographical area: Seville, Córdoba, Jaén, Cádiz, Huelva, Algeciras, Zaragoza, Valencia, Barcelona, ​​Extremadura and the Canary Islands”.

This dynamic allowed Fitonovo to disembark in Adif. The Sevillian company “dedicated itself to delivering gifts and gifts, and making payments in cash to different managers” of the public company, according to the sentence, which details the high amounts delivered to the four sentenced to prison: more than one million euros Enrique José Finch, former Director of Operations and Engineering of the Commercial Network (sentenced to three years minus one day in prison); more than 400,000 euros to Antonio Rodríguez Jurado, former director of Adif Sevilla (punished to two years and 6 months); more than 100,000 euros to José Antonio García Pascual, former manager of the Zaragoza Infrastructure Maintenance Area (one year minus one day in jail); and more than 22,000 euros to Luis Mata, an infrastructure technician (14 months in prison).

At the time of imposing the sentences, in line with the Prosecutor’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office, the court has assessed the mitigating factors of confession and undue delay: “They have elapsed, from the opening of the preliminary proceedings and up to the date of the beginning of the sessions, more than eight years”, says the ruling. The other ten defendants are acquitted due to the prescription of the crimes.

prescribed offenses

The prosecution of hank case Thus, it ends with the imposition of minimum sentences and dozens of acquittals (including those of PSOE and IU, who were accused as legal persons in one of the lines of investigation, although their involvement was ruled out as it was not considered proven). None of the 36 convicted has been punished to more than three years in prison, after successive agreements with the Prosecutor’s Office to reduce sentences, in addition to considering that many crimes have prescribed and mitigating measures applied.

He hank case These are investigations that began almost a decade ago, when the investigation into irregularities in the semi-public company Mercasevilla —a case directed by magistrate Mercedes Alaya, first instructor of the case of the Andalusian ERE— led to the plot hatched around Fitonovo. The case finally ended in the National Court in 2015. And, in 2019, the investigating judge José de la Mata sent 88 people linked to the seven lines of investigation into which it was divided.