The Innova case appears before the Provincial Court of Tarragona fourteen years after its initiation. This Monday, the preliminary issues of the main piece and the second separate piece are being heard.
The parties are negotiating settlement agreements that could avoid the full oral trial. If there are no understandings, the procedure will begin on the 26th after the suspension decreed in May 2024 due to the health reasons of a defendant.
The Prosecutor's Office requests up to ten years for millionaire invoices
The Public Prosecutor's Office requests prison sentences of between seven and ten years for eight defendants in the main case. The prosecution imputes the payment of invoices exceeding one million euros to the architect Jorge Batesteza and the former director of CatSalut Carles Manté.
The prosecution maintains that Manté and Batesteza agreed with the then mayor of Reus Lluís Miquel Pérez (PSC) and an undetermined person from the Department of Health that Innova would hire them as advisors for the Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus. This maneuver occurred after both were dismissed at the end of 2006.
Innova paid Manté more than 720,000 euros between 2007 and 2011 for strategic consulting. These funds were channeled through the company CCM Estratègies i Salut.
Jorge Batesteza was hired by Innova in June 2007 for 387,000 euros plus 8,900 euros in travel expenses for technical advice on the construction of the hospital.
Conflicts of interest in the hospital's work
Batesteza constituted the company BBATS Consulting Projects in 2008 and pressured Euroconsult to hire him as the architect for the works. He received 186,400 euros for this assignment while simultaneously advising Innova.
Sources consulted indicate that the existence of highly qualified undue delays and the dismissal of some initial proceedings could motivate plea agreements. This circumstance would result in a reduction of sentences by one or two degrees.
The case reaches the trial phase with a reduced scope compared to its initial configuration. The judicial calendar includes sessions this month and on June 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 25, and 30.
The forecast indicates that the procedure will be ready for sentencing on July 1.