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Phase Two of Operación Malaya completed in Marbella
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By h.b. - Jul 2, 2006 - 7:18 PM
The 30 people arrested last Tuesday have now all appeared before the Instruction Judge in Marbella, Miguel Angel Torres
The El Pais newspaper has printed part of the court summary of the statement made by an unnamed but repentant Marbella Town Hall Councillor to the instruction judge Torres in the Malaya corruption case. In it the councillor confesses to payments made in the years 2004 – 2006 and shared out between the councillors by the man alleged to be at the centre of the affair, the municipal real estate assessor Juan Antonio Roca. The councillor says that he or she has been paid 200,000 € in such payments and that when a real estate developer made a payment Roca shared out envelopes among the different councillors, with the Mayor and deputies getting most of the monies, while other councillors collected smaller amounts, such as 6,000 €. In this way Juan Antonio Roca considered that his position was secured.
Of the 14 councillors who signed the motion of no confidence in the Mayor Julian Muñoz in Marbella in 2003, a motion organised by Juan Antonio Roca, 12 have now been arrested. Only Pedro Pérez from the Partido Andalucista remains uncharged, while Carlos Fernández is now the subject of an arrest warrant. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Judge Torres is clear that Roca had complete control of the money, and used the Marbella Town Hall as one of his business interests, which gave him political power to obtain incomes from his dealings with businessmen, and for which he paid a series of costs to the councillors and others. The judge describes Roca as the Mayor in the shadows, who ran the town hall from his office in the planning department despite not being elected by anyone.
Much of the money raised was sent on by Roca to other companies controlled by his front men.
El Pais says that the real accounting which has been uncovered by the judge shows that the councillors in the town hall received between them four million € over just two years – in 2004 and 2005. All the money was collected in and paid out by Maras Asesores, a company owned by Roca and where he kept an office.
The list show 16 councillors and 11 businessmen implicated in the case. The list of businessmen is as follows:
Rafael Gómez Sanchez – Constructor – Arenal 2000
Emilio Rodríguez Bugallo – Constructor – Construcciones Salamanca
Carlos Sánchez Hernández – Real Estate – CCF
Gonzalo Fernández Castaño – Real Estate – GFC
Fidel San Román – Constructor
Cristóbal Peñarroya Sánchez – Real Estate
Enrique Ventero Terleira – Real Estate
Francisco García Lebrón – Real Estate – Aifos
Francisco Aranda Núñez – Real Estate
José Avila Rojas – Constructor
Tomas Olivo López – Owner of La Cañada shopping centre.
The investigating judge believes that the real estate development seen in Marbella has generated 12 billion € over the past 15 years. Juan Atontio Roca received all the backhander monies paid by the businessmen and is thought to have kept 35% of it for himself.
The rest was shared amongst the councillors to ensure that Roca could promise the businessmen guarantees that the Town Hall would not follow up any denuncias made against their developments. The judge believes in most cases backhanders ensured that town planning and other regulations were in effect ignored.
The businessmen paid their backhanders in three payments – Firstly when the plan was placed, second when the licence to build was grated and thirdly when the project was completed.
A total of 78 illegal developments were started between April 2003 and February 2005 according to the documents now in the hands of the courts. In most cases the Marbella Local Police did nothing to tape up and close the buildings. Involved in this period alone are 7,343 homes, a hotel, three commercial centres and an office block.
Meanwhile on Friday, Judge Miguel Ángel Torres granted bail to the first five of the 13 businessmen who were arrested in the second phase of Operación Malaya.
Constructor Enrique Ventero had bail set at 300,000 €, and Cristóbal Peñarroya at 30,000 €. Both of them are accused of bribery.
Released without bail but still charged with bribery is Francisco Aranda, and the alleged frontmen for Roca, the brothers Ignacio and Manuel Ignacio Gutiérrez Sánchez-Dalp who are faced with money laundering charges.
On Saturday the judge released another builder, although Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño still faces bribery charges. He was arrested in Madrid last Tuesday.
Builder and the owner of the Las Ventas Madrid bull ring, Fidel San Román, was ordered to prison without bail on Saturday.
Córdoba real estate promoter, Rafael Gómez, was granted 300,000 € bail as was another builder Enrique Ventero.
The Commerical Director of Aifos, Francisco García Lebrón, was initially sent to prison without bail, but granted 30,000 € bail after a second statement.
Gonzalo Fernández was released but still faces bribery charges.
The constructors José Avila Rojas and Emilio Miguel Rodriguez Bugallo, both had to find 500,000 € bail on Saturday night.
Tomas Olivo, the owner of the La Cañada commercial centre was granted 500,000 € bail. He arrived with his friend Juan Antonio Roca together in 1991.
Phase two of the Operación Malaya is now completed, but all the indications are that phase three is now about to get underway.
As part of the next phase Judge Torres is reported to be investigating Jesús Gil Marín, Jesús Gil y Gil’s son and ex Mayor of Estepona.
Also reportedly under investigation is José María el Nido, lawyer for the Julián Muñoz and the Marbella Town hall and the President of the Seville Football Club.
The President of the Junta de Andalucía, Manuel Chaves, has said that the regional and central governments are holding contracts to solve the debt in Marbella Town Hall. Among the urgent debts faced by the town administration are debts to Social Security and wages for council employees. The total debt is now put at more than 300 million €.
The President of the Marbella Management Committee, Diego Martín Reyes, has announced that he has decided to dedicate himself full-time to the post and will therefore be giving up his work as a lawyer. The decision comes after an incompatibility commission drew attention to his case.
The President of the Aifos, the third largest real estate company in the province of Málaga, Jesús Ruiz Casado, has managed to reach an out of court settlement in one of the court cases open against his company. The day before the court was to rule on the charge of fraud placed against him by the British company Ocean View, the latter has withdrawn the complaint. Ocean View had claimed that Aifos was selling off-plan flats without a licence to build, or in some cases without owning the land concerned. Under the out of court settlement, Aifos will supply Ocean View with enough properties to cover the demands of their clients so they have their investments guaranteed. The commercial director of Aifos, Francisco García, was among those arrested last Tuesday in the second phase of the Málaya case in Marbella, and the company’s main offices in Calle Cister in Málaga were searched by police on Friday.
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Phase Two of Operación Malaya completed in Marbella
larger | smaller
By h.b. - Jul 2, 2006 - 7:18 PM
Constructor Cristbal Pearroya who was granted 30,000 bail by Judge Torres - Photo EFE
The El Pais newspaper has printed part of the court summary of the statement made by an unnamed but repentant Marbella Town Hall Councillor to the instruction judge Torres in the Malaya corruption case. In it the councillor confesses to payments made in the years 2004 – 2006 and shared out between the councillors by the man alleged to be at the centre of the affair, the municipal real estate assessor Juan Antonio Roca. The councillor says that he or she has been paid 200,000 € in such payments and that when a real estate developer made a payment Roca shared out envelopes among the different councillors, with the Mayor and deputies getting most of the monies, while other councillors collected smaller amounts, such as 6,000 €. In this way Juan Antonio Roca considered that his position was secured.
Of the 14 councillors who signed the motion of no confidence in the Mayor Julian Muñoz in Marbella in 2003, a motion organised by Juan Antonio Roca, 12 have now been arrested. Only Pedro Pérez from the Partido Andalucista remains uncharged, while Carlos Fernández is now the subject of an arrest warrant. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Judge Torres is clear that Roca had complete control of the money, and used the Marbella Town Hall as one of his business interests, which gave him political power to obtain incomes from his dealings with businessmen, and for which he paid a series of costs to the councillors and others. The judge describes Roca as the Mayor in the shadows, who ran the town hall from his office in the planning department despite not being elected by anyone.
Much of the money raised was sent on by Roca to other companies controlled by his front men.
El Pais says that the real accounting which has been uncovered by the judge shows that the councillors in the town hall received between them four million € over just two years – in 2004 and 2005. All the money was collected in and paid out by Maras Asesores, a company owned by Roca and where he kept an office.
The list show 16 councillors and 11 businessmen implicated in the case. The list of businessmen is as follows:
Rafael Gómez Sanchez – Constructor – Arenal 2000
Emilio Rodríguez Bugallo – Constructor – Construcciones Salamanca
Carlos Sánchez Hernández – Real Estate – CCF
Gonzalo Fernández Castaño – Real Estate – GFC
Fidel San Román – Constructor
Cristóbal Peñarroya Sánchez – Real Estate
Enrique Ventero Terleira – Real Estate
Francisco García Lebrón – Real Estate – Aifos
Francisco Aranda Núñez – Real Estate
José Avila Rojas – Constructor
Tomas Olivo López – Owner of La Cañada shopping centre.
The investigating judge believes that the real estate development seen in Marbella has generated 12 billion € over the past 15 years. Juan Atontio Roca received all the backhander monies paid by the businessmen and is thought to have kept 35% of it for himself.
The rest was shared amongst the councillors to ensure that Roca could promise the businessmen guarantees that the Town Hall would not follow up any denuncias made against their developments. The judge believes in most cases backhanders ensured that town planning and other regulations were in effect ignored.
The businessmen paid their backhanders in three payments – Firstly when the plan was placed, second when the licence to build was grated and thirdly when the project was completed.
A total of 78 illegal developments were started between April 2003 and February 2005 according to the documents now in the hands of the courts. In most cases the Marbella Local Police did nothing to tape up and close the buildings. Involved in this period alone are 7,343 homes, a hotel, three commercial centres and an office block.
Meanwhile on Friday, Judge Miguel Ángel Torres granted bail to the first five of the 13 businessmen who were arrested in the second phase of Operación Malaya.
Constructor Enrique Ventero had bail set at 300,000 €, and Cristóbal Peñarroya at 30,000 €. Both of them are accused of bribery.
Released without bail but still charged with bribery is Francisco Aranda, and the alleged frontmen for Roca, the brothers Ignacio and Manuel Ignacio Gutiérrez Sánchez-Dalp who are faced with money laundering charges.
On Saturday the judge released another builder, although Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño still faces bribery charges. He was arrested in Madrid last Tuesday.
Builder and the owner of the Las Ventas Madrid bull ring, Fidel San Román, was ordered to prison without bail on Saturday.
Córdoba real estate promoter, Rafael Gómez, was granted 300,000 € bail as was another builder Enrique Ventero.
The Commerical Director of Aifos, Francisco García Lebrón, was initially sent to prison without bail, but granted 30,000 € bail after a second statement.
Gonzalo Fernández was released but still faces bribery charges.
The constructors José Avila Rojas and Emilio Miguel Rodriguez Bugallo, both had to find 500,000 € bail on Saturday night.
Tomas Olivo, the owner of the La Cañada commercial centre was granted 500,000 € bail. He arrived with his friend Juan Antonio Roca together in 1991.
Phase two of the Operación Malaya is now completed, but all the indications are that phase three is now about to get underway.
As part of the next phase Judge Torres is reported to be investigating Jesús Gil Marín, Jesús Gil y Gil’s son and ex Mayor of Estepona.
Also reportedly under investigation is José María el Nido, lawyer for the Julián Muñoz and the Marbella Town hall and the President of the Seville Football Club.
The President of the Junta de Andalucía, Manuel Chaves, has said that the regional and central governments are holding contracts to solve the debt in Marbella Town Hall. Among the urgent debts faced by the town administration are debts to Social Security and wages for council employees. The total debt is now put at more than 300 million €.
The President of the Marbella Management Committee, Diego Martín Reyes, has announced that he has decided to dedicate himself full-time to the post and will therefore be giving up his work as a lawyer. The decision comes after an incompatibility commission drew attention to his case.
National Police guard the doors of the main offices of the Aifos Real Estate company in Mlaga - Photo EFE
The President of the Aifos, the third largest real estate company in the province of Málaga, Jesús Ruiz Casado, has managed to reach an out of court settlement in one of the court cases open against his company. The day before the court was to rule on the charge of fraud placed against him by the British company Ocean View, the latter has withdrawn the complaint. Ocean View had claimed that Aifos was selling off-plan flats without a licence to build, or in some cases without owning the land concerned. Under the out of court settlement, Aifos will supply Ocean View with enough properties to cover the demands of their clients so they have their investments guaranteed. The commercial director of Aifos, Francisco García, was among those arrested last Tuesday in the second phase of the Málaya case in Marbella, and the company’s main offices in Calle Cister in Málaga were searched by police on Friday.
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