The Court of Instruction number 13 of Valencia remained without principal magistrate or supporting judge in the midst of an investigation into Azud affairone of the largest corruption schemes carried out in the Valencian Community and which affects a multitude of positions within the PP and PSOE due to the alleged payment of commissions.
The senior judge has notified her work stoppage and is no longer involved in the affairs of her court. Furthermore, no supporting judge has been appointed either. The Ministry of Justice did not approve the budgetary allocation necessary for his appointment despite the fact that it was requested by the Government Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) last July.
The appointment of a new judge in this court would have allowed the titular magistrate to exclusively investigate the macro-corruption case which is investigating the alleged misappropriation of public funds in several public institutions, a case in which more than 50 people are under investigation and there are a hundred volumes.
To the lack of budget is now added the loss of the owner. Today, the court finds itself without a judge to govern it and is waiting for the position to be filled by a replacement, as judicial sources confirmed to EL ESPAÑOL.
No date or timetable is planned to resolve this situation. The only certainty is that the new judge who arrives now will have to catch up on this macro-cause of corruption, in addition to assuming the daily workload.
The titular magistrate of the Instruction Court 13 of Valencia asked for help to continue the investigation into the Azud affair without affecting the rest of the procedures. At a meeting held on July 10, the Valencian TSJ accepted the request.
“This Chamber of Government considers it appropriate to establish a measure of support for the aforementioned judicial body, consisting of the appointment of a commissioned judge with relief from his dutiesfor a period of six months
his case is expandable,” specifies the minutes of the meeting, consulted by this newspaper.
The deliberations of the Azud affair They opened their doors in 2017. Among those investigated is the brother-in-law of the former mayor of Valencia, José María Corbín; the former vice-mayor of the PP Alphonse Grau; in addition to businessmen Jaime Febrer or Monica Montoro.
A former magistrate of the Valencia court linked to the PSOE also appears as an accused, Jose Luis Vera; the former spokesperson for the PSOE in the municipal council, Rafael Rubio; or the former treasurer of the Valencian PSOE, José María Catalonia.
International network
This week, more news about the investigation became known after the secrecy of the summary of several of the elements that make up the case was lifted.
As this newspaper publishes, the Civil Guard has located in six countries the accounts that Alfonso Grau used to hide the alleged payment of commissions of a million dollars in exchange for rigging the urban plans of the capital of Turia .
Alfonso Grau played between 2002 and 2015 the public position of vice-mayor of the Valencia City Hall and was president of the public entity Aumsathe city’s public housing and urban actions company.
During this period, “Alfonso Grau Alonso was bribed by several businessmen who clashed and tried to obtain the allocation of works and public services”, according to the investigating magistrate who concluded his report.
The countries used by this chart are United States, United Kingdom, Panama, Luxembourg, Monaco and Switzerland.
According to these reports, one of the main businessmen who bribed Grau with large sums of money as commissions was the Valencian Jaime Febrer. This businessman also allegedly bribed PSOE officials to achieve his goals, according to the summary.
This part of the investigation focused on “the form and manner in which funds of illicit origin, resulting from bribes, are integrated into the legal circuit, thus avoiding the action of Justice for a crime of money laundering. capital letters”.
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)”.
This is why, “to store the money given to him in payment of the previously agreed illicit commissions, Alfonso Grau rented three safes from the banking entities. BBVA and Bancajain which he allowed his daughters”.
Alfonso Grau and Rita Barberá in an archive image.
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 were clearly well executed by Maria Angeles Grau good for Kent Lawrence Baker“.
From there, “several transfers were made and when the bank provided us with their destination, it turned out that the beneficiary of these was the financial institution Guardian Credit”.
Furthermore, specifies the judge, “we have been informed that it is a financial entity whose main network of branches is in the state of Wisconsin, the state where María Ángeles Grau González resides with her husband “.
Both hold an account opened in the United States with the entity JP Morgan Chase Bank.
This account “was used by the businessman investigated, Jaime Febrer, to pay Alfonso Grau Alonso a commission which 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 a commercial relationship with the businessman, nor a commercial relationship in Spain that justifies the receipt of money,” the judge stressed.
The investigation is not finished and we must now question the people who appear in the new revelations in the summary. But for now, everything is on hold while we wait to decide who will lead the court.
