{"id":49966,"date":"2013-07-13T05:29:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T04:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/corruption-scandal-could-bring-down-spains-government\/49966\/"},"modified":"2013-07-13T05:29:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T04:29:41","slug":"corruption-scandal-could-bring-down-spains-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/corruption-scandal-could-bring-down-spains-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Corruption scandal could bring down Spain\u2019s government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u00a0<\/h3>\n

\n By
\n Carlos Hern\u00c3\u00a1ndez
\n
13 July 2013
\n <\/h5>\n

Last week the multimillionaire former treasurer of the ruling Popular Party (PP), Luis B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas. <\/p>\n

was refused bail and remanded in custody pending trial on charges of corruption and tax evasion. He amassed a fortune worth tens of millions of euros hidden in foreign bank accounts, which were used to channel illegal payments from wealthy businessmen to PP ministers and officials.<\/p>\n

This week, Spain\u2019s second-largest circulation newspaper El Mundo<\/em> published an interview between its editor Pedro J. Ram\u00c3\u00adrez and B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas. <\/p>\n

B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas has previously denied that it was his handwriting in a secret ledger detailing the payments, but admitted to Ram\u00c3\u00adrez that he had lied and that he possessed a lot more incriminating documents that \u201ccould bring down the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ram\u00c3\u00adrez revealed, \u201cLuis B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas told me that for at least the past 20 years, the PP has been illegally funded, receiving cash donations from builders and other entrepreneurs who in turn got contracts from the administrations ruled by the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cB\u00c3\u00a1rcenas told me that what has hitherto been published is but a small part of the documentation in his possession\u201d, and that there are, Ramirez continued, \u201cother documents and hard drives that prove the systematic illegal financing of party campaigns.\u201d El Mundo<\/em> commented, \u201cThe Luis B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas originals published by El Mundo<\/em> today pulverise the alibi used until now by the PP to deny the authenticity of its former treasurer\u2019s papers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The El Mundo<\/em> revelations are the latest developments in a scandal which erupted early this year (See: \u201c Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy implicated in corruption scandal<\/a> \u201d) when El Pa\u00c3\u00ads<\/em>, a daily paper supportive of the opposition Socialist Party (PSOE), first published B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas\u2019 ledgers containing detailed accounts of party finances between 1990 and 2008. <\/p>\n

Photocopies of the ledgers were apparently leaked to El Pa\u00c3\u00ads<\/em> by Jorge Tr\u00c3\u00adas Sagnier, a disgruntled former PP deputy and legal consultant to B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas. High Court Judge Pablo Ruz is investigating the ledgers as part of the massive, pre-existing \u201cG\u00c3\u00bcrtel\u201d investigation (See: \u201c Spain: Popular Party embroiled in corruption scandal<\/a> \u201d) in which local and regional PP officials are accused of awarding generous public contracts in return for kickbacks from leading businessmen.<\/p>\n

Ruz\u2019s investigation has discovered that B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas possessed papers showing illegal funding of the PP from the day it was created in 1979, following the end of the Franco dictatorship and the transition to democracy. Then it was called the Alianza Popular (Popular Alliance, AP), headed by former Franco minister Manuel Fraga, providing a safe haven for the fascistic elements from the Franco dictatorship. <\/p>\n

The B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas ledgers include names and donations, which often violated Spain\u2019s party financing law by exceeding the \u00e2\u201a\u00ac60,000 limit from any one individual or company. There are single contributions of up to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac250,000 and sums of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac400,000 in one year from the same individual. The legal limit was surpassed on more than 30 occasions. In order to conceal their origin B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas broke them down into smaller amounts and entered them as coming from anonymous donors. <\/p>\n

Many of the donors were builders or developers on government contracts, including multinational builder OHL, the beneficiary of 215 public works contracts awarded by the PP, and whose chairman Juan Miguel Villar appears to have donated \u00e2\u201a\u00ac530,000 to the party. Other construction companies involved are Azvy (\u00e2\u201a\u00ac858,000), Sacyr Vallehermoso (\u00e2\u201a\u00ac500,000) and Constructura Hisp\u00c3\u00a1nica (\u00e2\u201a\u00ac258,000).<\/p>\n

The person who made the largest donations, a total of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1.15 million, is recorded as \u201cJos\u00c3\u00a9 Luis S\u00c3\u00a1nchez\u201d, probably a reference to Andalusian real estate developer Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Luis S\u00c3\u00a1nchez Dom\u00c3\u00adnguez, chairman and founder of the Sando group. Other illegal donations are from people implicated in the G\u00c3\u00bcrtel case such as Pablo Crespo, a former leading PP figure in Galicia.<\/p>\n

From what has been revealed so far the secret party accounts show that millions in regular undeclared and untaxed payouts were handed to high-ranking members of the PP on top of their official salaries, which is forbidden by Spain\u2019s Incompatibilities Law.<\/p>\n

Rajoy appears to have received more than \u00e2\u201a\u00ac320,000 during this 18-year period, including millions of pesetas (tens of thousands of euros) in illegal payments while he was Minister of Public Administration in Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Mar\u00c3\u00ada Aznar\u2019s PP government between 1997 and 1999.<\/p>\n

Aznar also received monthly \u201cbonuses\u201d. According to a report sent by the Tax Agency to Judge Ruz, Aznar received 2.7 million pesetas (\u00e2\u201a\u00ac16,755) in three payments after he was sworn in as prime minister in May 1996\u2013in addition to his official salary of 12 million pesetas (\u00e2\u201a\u00ac72,500) plus housing and maintenance allowances.<\/p>\n

At least six other PP officials are being investigated for receiving \u201cbonus\u201d envelopes from the party over the course of several years. Congressional Deputy Eugenio Nasarre admitted to having received money, whilst B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas was present, for his foundation, the Fundaci\u00c3\u00b3n Humanismo y Democracia (Humanism and Democracy Foundation), including two payments of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac30,000 and \u00e2\u201a\u00ac40,000 and bonuses of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1,800 a month. Nasarre is quoted as saying that the payment of bonuses was \u201cgeneralized\u201d and it was \u201cnormal\u201d for them to be recorded as \u201canonymous\u201d. The \u201cbonus\u201d payments received by Nasarre are about double the amount of what a Spanish worker would consider a good wage.<\/p>\n

During his 30 years\u2019 work for the PP, B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas amassed and concealed a fortune estimated at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac48 million, most of which ended up in Swiss bank accounts. He claims that none of this money came from PP donations or kickbacks but from overseas investments, real estate and art dealings, for which he is facing charges of bribery, fraud, tampering with evidence and cover-ups. He has been under investigation in the G\u00c3\u00bcrtel probe since 2009.<\/p>\n

Although B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas stepped down as PP treasurer in 2010, he continued to be paid \u00e2\u201a\u00ac250,000 a year\u2013the highest salary paid by the party to any of its members\u2013as a political consultant until January 31, the day El Pa\u00c3\u00ads<\/em> published its revelations.<\/p>\n

Now B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas, according to one PP official, is the \u201ccaged bird about to sing\u201d. Other PP leaders have expressed \u201cgreat concern\u201d that the Barcenas case \u201cis doing terrible damage to the party and society itself\u201d. The fact that El Mundo<\/em>, which is sympathetic to the right-wing PP, publishes the B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas interview is a sign that the knives are out to get the Rajoy leadership and replace it with a more hardline faction headed by someone like Esperanza Aguirre, former PP president of the Madrid region and a highly influential figure on the Spanish right. She openly criticized PP Secretary General Mar\u00c3\u00ada Dolores de Cospedal for failing to defuse the corruption scandal and to sue B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas earlier on.<\/p>\n


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Republished with permission from: World Socialist Web Site<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By Carlos Hern\u00c3\u00a1ndez 13 July 2013 Last week the multimillionaire former treasurer of the ruling Popular Party (PP), Luis B\u00c3\u00a1rcenas. was refused bail and remanded in custody pending trial on charges of corruption and tax evasion. He amassed a fortune worth tens of millions of euros hidden in foreign bank accounts, which were used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-49966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}