The fourth section of the Valencia Provincial Court sentenced former PP minister Eduardo Zaplana to 10 years and five months in prison for the crimes of money laundering, corruption, falsification of commercial documents, in addition to a special ban of eight years and nine months for the offense of administrative prevarication. In addition, he imposes a fine of 20.6 million euros. The judgment acquits Zaplana and the rest of the defendants of the alleged criminal group crime.
The conviction in the “Erial affair” also absolves former Valencian president José Luis Olivas, who was facing a request for a six-year prison sentence for an alleged corruption offense. Zaplana’s secretary, Mitsouko Henriquez, was acquitted.
The judgment also imposes minimum sentences on the group of defendants who reached an agreement with the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office in exchange for the recognition of the facts: Joaquín Miguel Barceló ‘Pachano’, confessed leader of Zaplana, sentenced to one year and three month in prison for money laundering and a fine of five million euros; the former chief of staff Juan Francisco García (two years and nine months for the crimes of corruption, lying and money laundering and disqualification for prevarication of four years and five months), and the businessmen Vicente Cotino (three years and five months in prison for the offenses of corruption, lying and money laundering, in addition to a fine of four million euros) and his brother José Cotino (two years in prison for the offense of corruption and a fine of 320,000 euros).
For Francisco Grau Jornet, the accountant in the conspiracy, the sentence provides for five years in prison for money laundering, a fine of 20 million euros and a ban on practicing his profession for three years.
