The Court of Tarragona has acquitted auditor Juan Carlos Torres, his firm BDO, the insurer Mapfre, and the former director of the credit department of the Cooperativa de l'Aldea, Enric Sabaté, after the economic agreement reached with the entity and the Platform of Affected Parties in the case of the cooperative's bankruptcy.
The pact comes fourteen years after the investigation began and after a compensation of 880,000 euros that has allowed the affected parties involved to recover 100% of the amounts claimed. This civil reparation has excluded four defendants from the trial, but the proceedings continue for another four defendants.
The agreement reduced the list of defendants from eleven to four
Mapfre, Torres, and BDO have deposited 753,089 euros for the Cooperativa de l'Aldea and 126,911 euros for seven affected parties involved in the case. To this amount, 12,500 euros deposited by Enric Sabaté are added to also facilitate his exclusion from the proceedings.
Alberto Venegas, lawyer for the Platform of Affected Parties, explained during the hearing that the private prosecution is withdrawing from the case after the civil route has been satisfied.
"This party withdraws from the proceedings. We are not exclusively entrusted with criminal action, and civil action has been completely exhausted with respect to the plaintiffs, as the affected parties have recovered 100% of the amounts" - Alberto Venegas, lawyer for the Platform of Affected Parties
In the same vein, lawyer Xavier Faura stated that, as a consequence of the agreement, the platform withdraws the accusation and ceases to accuse anyone. The magistrate then ordered the acquittal of Torres, BDO, Mapfre, and Sabaté.
The case had gone to trial with eleven defendants, but after this move, the proceedings are now reduced to four defendants. Among them is still the former manager Daniel Ferré, to whom the Public Prosecutor's Office attributes alleged crimes of accounting fraud, forgery of commercial documents, punishable insolvency, and disloyal administration.
The Public Prosecutor's Office maintained the accusation against Daniel Ferré and requested 14.5 years
For Ferré, the public ministry seeks fourteen and a half years in prison and civil liability of 1.64 million euros. Suppliers Xavier and David Casas and former supplier Maria Teresa Melquíades Jiménez also remain accused.
The defenses of these last three have requested the statute of limitations for the invoices or their exclusion from the case in a hearing of preliminary matters held in the old prison of Tarragona, a venue chosen due to lack of space in the Provincial Court.
Prosecutor Xavier Jou joined the withdrawal of private accusations and asked the court to take into account the violation of the right to a trial without undue delay, in an investigation open for fourteen years. That delay had already conditioned others derived from the case, such as the bankruptcy of the cooperative and the claims processes for the trapped savings.
Outside the old prison, the mayor of l'Aldea, Xavier Royo, positively assessed that a significant portion of those affected have recovered money, although he recalled that the process has been so long that some victims have died before seeing a resolution.
"We positively assess that a good part of the people have recovered part of their savings. We hope that justice distributes responsibilities to whomever corresponds and that in the end one of the darkest stories we have had in the municipality ends. We are already beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel" - Xavier Royo, mayor of l'Aldea
Royo added that the decision to keep the cooperative alive allowed for agreements such as Caixabank's payment of 3 million to cover debts, a route through which some affected individuals recovered between 50% and most of their savings.
The first session of the oral trial, focused on preliminary matters, ended with the continuation of the hearing scheduled for next Tuesday, June 9, in Tarragona.