Félix Arroyo Martín appeared this Tuesday in the Provincial Court of Toledo to be tried for allegedly embezzling 1.7 million euros. This is the money he allegedly stole from dozens of clients when he was director of a bank office of the now-defunct Caja Castilla-La Mancha in the small Toledo municipality of Las Herencias, where he worked from 1991 to 2013.
However, he had to turn back because the trial was suspended last week. To know the reason for this postponement, still without a new date set, we have to go back to July. At the end of that month, Felix’s lawyer and prosecutor resigned. This happened a few days before August, the month of rest for the Administration of Justice, and the accused received an order from the court of Toledo to appoint a new lawyer as well as another prosecutor.
Felix had promised to do so, according to sources consulted by ABC, but ultimately he did not keep his word.. That is why the Toledo court appointed him as a public defender and decided last week to postpone the hearing, scheduled for this Tuesday, so that the new lawyer has time to prepare a trial with 40 victims. The decision was communicated to his lawyer and his lawyer, according to the same sources, although it seems that there was no communication and the accused appeared this morning at the Palace of Justice.
He is accused of embezzling just over 1.7 million euros from 40 clients of the same bank branch, most of them individuals, between 2000 and February 2013. Among those harmed in this town of 800 inhabitants in the judicial district of Talavera de la Reina are a construction company, the Brotherhood of Christ of Vera Cruz and the Association Peña Madridista Las Herencias.
The prosecution is seeking six years in prison for a persistent offense of embezzlement, another for falsifying commercial documents and another for a persistent offense of fraud. According to the indictment, Felix also took advantage of the trust of the neighbors and “took possession of the money that the customers kept in the bank.”
To do this, he collected their signatures on blank documents, which then served as internal documentary support for the disposal of cash from the accounts. He also withdrew money from the funds without providing any supporting documents or kept cash deposits made by customers.
When requesting information on balances, booklet updates or transaction receipts, Felix gave them typewritten notebooks or forms manipulated with the bank’s seal and signature.. In addition, he took advantage of his position as manager to use his colleagues’ passwords when they were away from their workplace.
Liberbank, which absorbed Caja Castilla-La Mancha in October 2018, returned one million euros to the 27 people involved, according to the indictment signed on June 8, 2021.
Félix was already tried and convicted by this same provincial court in 2019 for withholding 110,300 euros from the couple formed by Emilio and María del Prado when he was director of the same financial office. The sentence, confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2021, was two years and three months in prison, in addition to paying a fine of nine months at a rate of ten euros per day and the restitution of the money taken from the couple.
