Francisco Grau, the accountant of the corrupt conspiracy led by former PP minister Eduardo Zaplana, wants to know if the special ban on exercising his profession for a period of three years “refers to the collegiate profession of economist or to that financial”. “. This is indicated in a letter addressed to the fourth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia in which he requests a correction and addition to the sentence of the “Erial case” which sentenced him on October 15 to a sentence of five years in prison for a money laundering offense and a fine of 20 million euros, in addition to payment of procedural costs. This is the possibility of clarifying a sentence after its pronouncement, provided for by the. Code of Criminal Procedure.
In the document to which elDiario.es had access, Grau’s defense recalls that the convict has the dual status of economist and lawyer, since he registered as a lawyer in 2017, a year before the arrests of “ the Erial affair”. His professional future depends on this clarification after having served the prison sentence in the event of a final conviction.
His participation in events is linked to his status as a tax advisor. In fact, Joaquín Barceló “Pachano”, the avowed leader of Zaplana, assured in a telephone conversation intercepted by investigators that Grau was the “architect” of the corporate “engineering” of the corrupt plot. A thesis that fully supports the sentence.
The tax advisor, who was on the board of directors of the bankrupt Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM), was the tax advisor to Zaplana and his family. The proven facts section of the sentence proves that in the “distribution of functions” of the conspiracy, the former PP politician “placed Paco Grau as financier” for the management of commissions in “offshore” companies in tax havens, “from his closest circle of friends and that he had the financial knowledge necessary to give the appropriate orders to Beatriz García Paesa”, the niece of the famous spy responsible for managing the front companies in Luxembourg.
The prosecutor, adds the judgment, “knew” the illicit origin of the funds. The convict also provided his services in the placement of laundered commissions in Andorra and Panama and in their return to Spain through real estate transactions and the use of large sums of cash. It was he who “designed the corporate framework” of the plot, indicates the Valencia court.
The “old woman’s tale” by Paco Grau
The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard found during the search of his home the “old woman’s account”, the literal name of the computer file which detailed the accounting movements of the plot.
Paco Grau’s letter also regrets that the conviction imposes the payment of procedural costs “without further precision”, of which he asks to “specify the amount”. The judgment also maintains the seizure of the prosecutor’s property “in order to guarantee compliance by the convicted persons with their financial responsibilities.” Thus, a total of 473,211 euros remain blocked in bank accounts and investment funds, in addition to 40% of a house in Alicante and a Smart Fortwo vehicle. The funds confiscated on the ground total 11.5 million euros.
The prosecutor’s defense recalls that among the financial responsibilities that can be guaranteed by bail or the seizure of property does not include the sanction of a fine, which would be “as much as to impose an anticipated sanction”. Grau was fined 20 million euros. The intervention on its assets seems “clearly excessive” to him.
The brief also raises the need to supplement the sentence due to a “lack of consistency in the statement” related to two previous issues raised by Francisco Grau’s defense during the oral trial: the alleged violations of the right to privacy and of communications secrecy.
