The imputation of two new crimes (embezzlement and professional intrusion) of Judge Juan Carlos Peinado for Begoña Gomezwife of the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, passes to 11 years in prison the maximum penalty that a person found guilty of these acts would face (more business corruption and influence peddling) in the worst-case scenario.
The Court of Instruction number 41 of Madrid, where the Begoña Gómez case, He is already investigating the wife of the tenant of Moncloa for four crimes within the framework of the chair that he led at the Complutense University and in the exercise of a professional activity in which he used public resources. The instructor quoted it again on next November 18 formalize the accusation for the alleged offenses of embezzlement and professional intrusion.
In your case, the crime of corporate corruption involves prison sentences of six months to four years. This involves the payment of money, bribes and other economic offers in order to ensure the performance of a contract or to obtain competitive advantages over other companies, or to request, accept or receive such offers. This is the first time in Spanish democracy that the wife of a government president must give explanations in court for private matters.
On the other hand, the offense of influence peddling, with deprivation of freedom of expression six months to two yearsis committed when someone influences a public official or authority by using the prevalence to issue a resolution that could generate directly or indirectly an economic advantageeither for himself or for a third party. It is regulated in the sections 428 to 430 of the Penal Code.
Likewise, it was learned this Tuesday that the judge also accuses Begoña Gómez of the alleged commission of the crime of embezzlement, which is punishable by the penalty provided for in the law. section 248 of the Penal Code, relating to the offense of fraud and which can vary between 6 months and 3 years. The aforementioned precept specifies that when establishing the sanction, the following elements must be taken into account: “the amount of what was defraudedthe economic damage caused to the injured person, the relationship between the latter and the fraudster, the means used by the latter and all other circumstances allowing the seriousness of the offense to be assessed.
“Those who, to the detriment of others, suitable for themselves or a third partymoney, effects, securities or any other movable thing, which they had received as deposit, commission or custody, or which had been entrusted to them by virtue of any other title which produces the obligation to deliver them or to return them, or deny having received them, says current legislation.
Concerning the offense of professional trespass. The Penal Code qualifies as an offense of intrusion the behavior included in the section 403that is to say the one who “exercises typical acts of a profession without having the corresponding academic title issued or recognized in Spain in accordance with current legislation.
This provision specifies that “a prison sentence of six months to two years if one of the following circumstances occurs: a) if the offender, in addition, the quality has been publicly awarded as a professional covered by the aforementioned title; and b) If the culprit performs the acts referred to in the preceding article in a premises or establishment open to the public in which the provision of services typical of this profession is advertised. It should be remembered that Begoña Gómez He never had an official diploma or a baccalaureate and she became the only professor without a doctorate or dissertation among the 49 directors of chairs like hers at Complutense.
In his order, Judge Peinado considers it an offense of misappropriation to approve the story of the complaint in the sense that Gómez, who was co-director of the Competitive Social Transformation Chair of Complutense “would have registered in its favor, as owner of the commercial entity Trasforma TSC SL, the trademark TSC Transformación Social Competitiva, and subsequently the software”, which “had was financed by companiesbut always for the Complutense University.
The instructor also assesses the offense of professional intrusion and affirms that the accused could engage it when drafting specifications for technical requirements for the hiring, by Complutense, of a technical and technological assistance and consulting service for the creation of a management platform for small and medium-sized businesses.
Excludes two other crimes
However, the judge rejects a possible crime of unjust administrationbecause it cannot be inferred that Begoña Gómez “had the task of administering or managing the assets of the Complutense University of Madrid”.
The judge also excludes the crime of embezzlement of public funds because Gómez does not have the status of authority or public agent that they demand, “without even making the broadest interpretation of this concept.”
During the last press conference of his official trip to India, where the head of executive was accompanied by Begoña Gómez (who had her own agenda), Pedro Sánchez warned the judge that “time will put things back in their place” and assured that “where there is nothing, nothing can be taken away.”
