The Court of Instruction number 13 of Valencia has authorized the Monaco Prosecutor’s Office to open its own investigation into the alleged bribes that the Valencian PP politician allegedly received Alphonse GrauVice-Mayor of Valencia under the mandate of Rita Barberá.
The Valencian court has addressed the authorities of the Principality of Monaco in the context of the proceedings of Azud casethe case investigating 20 years of looting at the Valencia City Hall.
A few months later, the prosecutor’s office of that country responded to the request and asked the Valencia court for permission to open proceedings after finding documents related to possible money laundering.
“I have the honour to inform you that the facts mentioned in your request may justify the opening of a parallel investigation on Monegasque territory for money laundering,” specifies the document to which EL ESPAÑOL had access.
For all these reasons, “I have the honour of requesting authorisation from the Spanish judicial authorities” so that the Monegasque Public Prosecutor’s Office can use the information contained in the request for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, for the purpose of opening a separate mirror investigationwithout prejudice to the Spanish procedure”.
“Finally, I would like to assure you that the Monegasque authorities are committed to providing assistance in this regard, on a reciprocal basisif so. Thanking you for your assistance in this matter, please accept,” the document concludes.
The Valencia court, with the agreement of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, responded that “there is no objection to the Monegasque Prosecutor’s Office being able to use the information contained in our document on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, in order to carry out a mirror investigation.” investigation.”
The Principality of Monaco has confirmed that there are accounts and banking products in the country in the name of the family of a famous Valencian developer, Miguel Montoródied in 2016 and father of the businesswoman Monica Montoroinvestigated for the alleged payment of commissions to PP officials of the Valencia City Council.
Montoro is the same promoter who shared a Swiss account with the former Valencian PP councilor Rafael Blascoconvicted of other corruption cases.
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Alfonso Grau held the public position of Vice Mayor of Valencia City Council between 2002 and 2015 and was president of the public entity Aumsa, the city’s public housing and urban actions company.
During this period, “Alfonso Grau Alonso was bribed by several businessmen who were competing and bidding to obtain the award of public works and services,” the investigating judge concluded. The information was made public after the judge lifted summary secrecy in recent days.
According to this information, one of the main businessmen who bribed Grau with large sums of money in commissions, besides the Montoro family, was the Valencian Jaime María Febrer Rovira.
The investigation was able to confirm the participation of Alfonso Grau “in at least 8 corruption schemes based on urban planning operations in favor of businessman Jaime María Febrer Rovira and the companies of his group (Axis Group) from 2003 to 2013.
For this activity, “Jaime Maria Febrer Rovira paid Alfonso Grau Alonso large sums of money of hidden origin and whose destination they concealed so as not to detect the criminal activity that they were both carrying out.”
The investigation reveals that “corrupt businessman Jaime María Febrer not only paid bribes to Alfonso Grau, but that said, bribes have reached other public officials or intermediaries in the rigging of public markets”.
Investigators discovered that, thanks to testimonies, such as those of his secretary, “the investigated Febrer had money and accounts abroad.”
To do this, “Jaime Maria Febrer Rovira and Alfonso Grau Alonso called on members of their immediate family.”
Thus, “Alfonso Grau Alonso participated in the task of hiding and transforming the money from the bribes to his daughters and their husbands, namely María Ángeles and Sofia Grau González and Kent Lawrence Baker and Eugenio Cámara Alberola.”
And Jaime María Febrer Rovira, according to the investigations carried out, used his wife and children.
“Due to the fact that Alfonso Grau received these bribes or illicit commissions, he failed in his duty of loyalty as a public official, conducted several competitions, ensuring that the allocation of public lands or the rights to public lands revert to any of the companies owned by Jaime María Febrer,” the judge denounces.
The Montoro family would have used the same mechanism, since accounts and products appeared in Monica in the name of the children of the deceased businessman.
From the study of all account movements of any type, income statements, transfers or credits, “Alfonso Grau Alonso made cash deposits into his account and that of his daughter for an amount of 412,725 eurosalways in quantities which, due to their amount, were not subject to financial or administrative control (less than 3,000 euros)”.
For this reason, “to store the money that was given to him in payment of the previously agreed illicit commissions, Alfonso Grau rented three safes from the banking entities BBVA and Bancaja, in which he authorized his daughters.”
The funds obtained in Spanish accounts came from “transfer operations to a bank account located in the United States.”
These transfers, according to the evidence found, “were ordered from CitiBank Online and evidently carried out either by María Ángeles Grau or for Kent Lawrence Baker.”
From here, “several transfers have been made and when the bank provided us with their destination, it turned out that the beneficiary of the latter was the financial entity Guardian Credit.”
In addition, the judge said, “we have been informed that this is a financial entity whose main branch network is in the state of Wisconsin, the state where María Ángeles Grau González resides with her husband.”
Both have accounts opened in the United States. at JP Morgan Chase Bank.
This account “was used by the investigated businessman, Jaime María Febrer, to pay Alfonso Grau Alonso a commission that for an amount of 1 million eurosThey both agreed that Alfonso Grau would promote one of the urban planning operations in which he favored the businessman to the detriment of public interests.
“Neither his daughter nor the American citizen to whom she is married have any commercial relationship with the businessman, nor any commercial relationship in Spain that justifies the collection of money,” the judge emphasizes.
