On October 9, 2020, the Supreme Court confirmed the majority of the prison sentences handed down against those convicted of the looting of 23 million euros in the Pinedo sewage plant (València) during the years 2006 to 2011. Prison sentences ranged between one year and four months for one of the technicians, to the 12 and a half years that the Superior Court imposed on the former director of the public company Emarsa Esteban Cuesta as the main person responsible for the fraud. Less than four years later, only three of the main defendants are still behind bars: Cuesta himself, the former president of Emarsa and former vice-president of the Provincial Deputation of Valencia, Enrique Crespo, and the former director financier Enrique Arnal. The others already benefit from a third degree or house arrest for good behavior and after having served at least a third of their sentence.
The last to leave was José Juan Morenilla, former director of the Public Wastewater Sanitation Establishment (Epsar), one of the two senior officials of the Generalitat necessary to implement the corrupt Emarsa plot.
Morrenilla entered on November 16, 2020 and left last May after serving three years and eight months in Picassent prison out of the nine to which he was sentenced. Currently, he is in his third year CIS (Social Integration Center), which means he still sleeps in prison and cannot leave before 9 a.m. Recently, the former right-hand man of the late PP councilors Juan Cotino and José Ramón García Antón suffered from significant health problems.
Sebastián García Martínez, alias “Chanín”, was sentenced to 7 years in prison. He was released in January this year after serving three years and two months in prison. Chanín was one of the masterminds of the Emarsa IT spending plot. He decides to spend his years in the shadow of Teruel prison, one of the most lenient centers. Businessman Enrique Sena was also in Teruel, where he served a third of the six years in prison to which he was sentenced. For the moment, we are in open mode. The companies of this well-known entrepreneur from Horta Sud invoiced the services not provided, according to the judgment.
Enrique Sena’s brother and also a businessman, José Luis, was also released from prison. Due to the seriousness of the events in which he participated by not wanting to collaborate with justice, he served three of the four years in prison to which he was sentenced. He is not on parole, but he is at home with a monitoring bracelet from the prison authorities. Businessman Daniel Calzada, who was imprisoned because he was arrested after his conviction, also served his sentence.
Jorge Ignacio Roca Samper, the “biller” who helped the conspiracy to embezzle up to 13 million euros for fraud with the accounting of sludge generated by the sewage plant, was in prison for several years after being arrested in Moldova. He was on the run for two years and was arrested thanks to the collaboration of Interpol. He was recently sentenced to an additional two years in prison for VAT fraud, alongside Cuesta and Crespo.
The only woman to go to prison for this plot, Eva Marsal, served two and a half years in Tenerife prison. Companion of Enrique Arnal, she benefited from trips and other goods resulting from the looting of the wastewater treatment plant. Another of the convicts who spent a few months in the Picassent prison and who is awaiting an appeal of his conviction before the Constitutional Court is Juan Carlos Gimeno. There were others sentenced to prison who could not enter because they did not meet the minimum or who were exchanged for fines.
Enrique Crespo remains in prison and must serve a total sentence of 15 years. Ten for the Supreme Court ruling, three for VAT fraud and two for a fine. He has currently been in the preventive module of Picassent prison for almost four years. Arnal, who must serve 10 and a half years, is also incarcerated in Picassent, in this case in the Penados module.
Esteban Cuesta, the one who received the longest sentence, faces 17.5 years in prison. He has been there for almost four years and has chosen Albacete prison to serve his sentence, which will not be less than eight years.
