The Tarragona Court has set for June 30 the trial for the collapse of the Credit Section of the l"Aldea Agricultural Cooperative, provided that no new delays occur. The case dates back to the blocking of savings of hundreds of families, which began on December 1, 2011, and opened a far-reaching economic and social crisis in this municipality of Baix Ebre.
The collapse affected 408 families and left a total hole of 7 million euros of debt. Of that amount, 4.6 million corresponded to the depositors' savings. The case shook a good part of the town, of 4,500 inhabitants, where numerous families had deposited their life savings in the credit section.
"The shock was very hard for many working families, a middle-class profile, but by rebound it affected our entire town, of 4,500 inhabitants" - Xavier Royo, mayor of l"Aldea
A case with several investigated
The main investigated is the former manager Daniel Ferré. The Prosecutor's Office requests for him 14 years of prison, in addition to fines and indemnities to the cooperative. It attributes to him, allegedly, a continuous crime of accounting falsehood, a continuous crime of falsehood in commercial document with fraud to the budgets of the European Union, concealment of assets, punishable insolvency and misappropriation.
Ferré started working at the cooperative in 1981 as an accountant and was appointed manager in 1996. In 2004 he received a general power of attorney to carry out all kinds of negotiations and operations linked to the cooperative's social purpose.
Also included in the case are nine other individuals and one legal entity, Bankia, former Caja Madrid. The Prosecutor's Office requests for this entity a fine of 14 million euros for misappropriation. Among the accused are Antonio Fornós and Manuela Buera, former director and former deputy director of the Caja Madrid branch with which the credit section operated, for whom three and a half years in prison are requested for the same crime.
BDO Auditores appears investigated as a subsidiary civil responsible party. Its head, Juan Carlos Torres, is accused of accounting fraud and faces a request for two and a half years in prison. The prosecutor maintains about his actions that he reported that the accounts were a reflection of reality, when they did not reflect the economic and financial situation of the company.
For the rest of those investigated, among them former officials of the cooperative, the Prosecutor's Office requests sentences of two and a half years in prison and fines.
The causes of the bankruptcy, under investigation
The investigation focuses on alleged risky and disproportionate investments, an alleged reckless and opaque management, insufficient controls, lack of bank guarantees, dubious and ineffective audits, the market crisis, and accounting irregularities. All of this paints a scenario that now must be examined in court.
Montse Llosa, first president of the cooperative after the bankruptcy, maintained that in the previous stage the manager was the one who handled everything and assured that he began to promote pharaonic works and gigantic expenses. The initial lawsuit was also directed against the Generalitat for failures in the control mechanisms, although it was finally left out of the procedure.
The impact in l'Aldea
The credit section offered time deposits with a remuneration 2% higher than that of other entities. If the market was at 4%, there it was paid at 6%. That attractiveness made many members and neighbors concentrate their savings in the cooperative.
The consequences were immediate. According to the current president of the cooperative, Miquel Carles, in some cases the economy of a lifetime was left at zero and there were people without money even to buy food. He also recounted that some members had up to 121,000 euros and ended up with only 500.
"Some people, when they ran out of the money they had at home, couldn't even go buy bread" - Enric, relative of an affected depositor
The passage of time has also left its mark among those affected. 20% of the members have already died, according to Carles. Despite this, some of the families maintain the hope of closing this episode with a judicial resolution.
"My mother has a small flame of hope, above all out of pride, because for us a sentence would be to turn the page and close this episode that marked us, the family and the town" - Enric, relative of an affected depositor
Partial recovery of the money
The cooperative has been returning part of the funds through an agreement for the progressive return of savings, in force between 2018 and 2025 and now extended. The adhering members have recovered 19.5% of their savings.
Carles assures that there are still about 3 million euros left to be returned and defends that the current board has managed to recover more than half of the money thanks to a management that it defines as surgical. In this time, the cooperative has launched a store, rents refrigeration chambers and created a commercial entity to distribute garden products to restaurants within a radius of between 60 and 100 kilometers.
From the City Council, measures were also promoted to favor the viability of the entity. The council acquired a 1,000 square meter warehouse and modified urban planning regulations to reclassify land and facilitate its sale to potential investors.
The offer to avoid the trial did not prosper
In early 2023, CaixaBank, as the entity that assumed the assets of the former Bankia, offered 2.1 million euros in compensation to avoid the criminal trial. The proposal required that the 45 individuals and the cooperative bringing the private prosecution withdraw the charges against the entity.
The agreement did not go forward because four people opposed it. With that path closed, the case continues its course and is now heading to the oral hearing scheduled in Tarragona, a date awaited for more than a decade by dozens of affected people who have not yet recovered their savings and who are seeking a judicial response to the blow that changed the economic life of l"Aldea.