Several things have happened in Verdiblanca since Antonio Sánchez de Amo received the Andalusia + Social award from the Minister of Equality on June 16, 2021. On that day, Sánchez received, as president, the recognition for 40 years of trajectory of the most established association. disabled people in Andalusia. At that time, he was already under investigation for irregularly increasing his salary, wasting hundreds of thousands of euros on unfair dismissals and giving away hundreds of hams to, according to his detractors, buy wishes.
Today, the prosecution has gathered all the evidence to accuse him of a continuous crime of embezzlement and another of unfair administration, for which he requests a sentence of four years in prison, a fine of 4 320 euros and compensation to Verdiblanca of something more. . of 370,000 euros. The private prosecution, made up of a group of associates and workers called the Association for the Freedom of Verdiblanca, is seeking an eleven-year prison sentence and a fine of 10,800 euros.
The judge has already agreed to open an oral trial, although the date has not yet been set. Sánchez de Amo, who remains president of Verdiblanca, is the only person accused in an investigation that has lasted just over three years. In a telephone conversation with this newspaper, he insists that everything is due to the “construction of lies” orchestrated by a minority group of employees and former employees aspiring to power.
“I fear that someone will file a complaint calling into question good management, which is unanimously approved each year by the shareholders’ meeting and which has the support of the board of directors,” he says. “There is nothing against the management of the entity. We have hundreds of workers and more subsidies for social projects,” says Sánchez de Amo, who denies any unrest among the workers, beyond what could have crystallized in the recent complaints of this undisciplined group. “The workers are very satisfied with the training provided to them and the atmosphere in the offices, as always, is absolutely cordial. »
An economic hole with unfair dismissals
The basis of the prosecutor’s accusation is an expert document, prepared at the request of the investigating judge (therefore not a party), which reflects the economic damage that the entity would have suffered due to the allegedly irregular expenses since 2016 , when Sánchez de Amo replaced José Amate, founder of the entity, as president of Verdiblanca.
Most of the damage lies in the layoffs of a group of workers that the president has put in his crosshairs. “Arbitrarily and without justified reason,” according to the prosecutor, Sánchez de Amo requested the dismissal of half a dozen associate-workers with extensive experience in the entity, several of whom held decision-making positions, “regarding where he had a conflict of interest. interests”. All of these dismissals were declared unfair, generating an economic hole of 244,000 euros in compensation.
Some layoffs were so urgent that they didn’t even wait a few months to save costs. Thus, Juan Lorenzo López, who had been general manager for 25 years, was fired when he was nine months from retirement “without valid reason”. A court recognized the unfair nature of the dismissal and forced him to compensate him to the tune of 160,000 euros.
Behind the victims lies the atmosphere of confrontation and distrust towards the entity, at least towards the group of workers after the complaints. They have already spoken to this media about the unbreathable work environment he put in those he considered to be facing him. These behaviors have given rise to several reports from the Labor Inspectorate and judicial decisions in which the “degrading treatment” towards certain workers and the “critical working environment” in the entity are confirmed. This atmosphere was further strengthened from 2020, when some workers decided to go to court.
The reports record public fights, shouting, threatening or derogatory emails and arbitrary damage. The inspector’s report says: “Through the statements of the witnesses, it is verified that Antonio Sánchez de Amo sometimes shouts at some workers and made verbal expressions such as ‘Here we do what my cojones say,'” This is my business and “I’m in charge here”, “This is my parking lot and they do what I want”, “This is my farm and they do what I say here”, “Here they do what I say and how I say”, “For home who doesn’t want to go to the streets”, expressing an authoritarian attitude towards workers, abusing their position of power over them.”
Salary increase
The Prosecutor’s Office also notes unfair management and misappropriation of remuneration by Sánchez de Amo himself, who increased his salary when he became head of the entity, despite the fact that the position was theoretically free.
“Driven by a spirit of personal benefit and knowing that he violated the duties of loyalty inherent to his functions”, without submitting to any procedure or ratification, and “without union or representation cause which justified it”, knowing that the position as president, he was not paid, Sánchez de Amo increased “his salary as a journalist” (the one he had nominally) by more than 57%, from 40,000 to 70,000 euros, according to his words. the prosecutor in the indictment.
The prosecutor considers the excessive spending of Christmas 2020 as damage. For these holidays, those of Covid, the president ordered 650 shoulders of ham and six batches of halal products without obtaining more offers than those of the La Marca group, led by a friend. according to his detractors, who believe that this is how he wanted to buy wills a few weeks before the association elections. The excess expenditure amounts to 10,000 euros, according to the expert report.
The final economic damage indicated by the expert and the prosecution is more difficult to quantify. The Assembly responsible for approving the accounts and renewing the charges was delayed by Sánchez de Amo, which caused delays in the filing of the accounts, a legal obligation without which the entity cannot request certain subsidies. As he explains, the delay was due to the exceptional cause of the pandemic. “Like so many other businesses,” he says. This year’s documents were submitted on time after being approved by the assembly. “The association doubled its profits and the SL halved its losses,” he says.
Millionaire prices for cleaning services
Verdiblanca, founded as an association in 1979, currently has a commercial company and a special employment center which brings in almost ten million euros per year, mainly from contracts to provide cleaning services to administrations of Almería and Andalusia. It also receives significant subsidies for its social work of integration and employment of disabled people.
The objective since its origin has been to promote the integration and normalization of the lives of people with disabilities, to raise awareness in society and to demand compliance with legislation. To facilitate professional integration, it maintains contracts with several Andalusian administrations. This is, for example, the contractor for the cleaning service of the University of Almería.
These agreements give it important economic resources, but in recent years its results have deteriorated, declaring losses of a million in 2022. Since Sánchez de Amo took over the presidency, the entity’s greatest aspiration has was to build his own headquarters, a project in which he put personal effort and which his critics describe as megalomaniac. It would cost at least three million euros and would be located on a 5,000 square meter plot of land donated by Almería City Council. According to its president, the first phase of the project will finally begin in the first quarter of 2025, after several years of delay which he attributes to the need to readapt it due to the geotechnical characteristics of the land.
Sánchez de Amo became president in May 2016, replacing José Gómez Amate, of whom he was vice president. On February 18, 2021, he was re-elected president. However, the meeting was contested and later declared null and void due to voting irregularities. During the rehearsal, he won again with a large majority. In the meantime, he was also appointed sole administrator of the business entity, dismissing the board of directors “without justified reason”, according to the prosecutor.
According to its detractors, the intention to build the new headquarters is at the origin of the conflict and the decisions subsequently taken by the president of Verdiblanca, who now finds himself facing the dock.
