The leaders of the Gürtel case and most of the defendants have acknowledged what they did in the final trial of the macro-trial

The leader of the Gürtel plot, Francisco Correa, his number two, Pablo Crespo, and most of the defendants have acknowledged the facts that the prosecution accuses them of during the final trial of the macro-trial of the Gürtel case. 

This was explained on Monday by the prosecutor at the first session of the trial in the National High Court, which detailed that 20 of the 25 defendants have reached an agreement with the prosecution in exchange for a lesser sentence.

As a result of the concealment of the estate, this is a trial of the last piece of crimes that Correa and Crespo might have committed against the Treasury, "largely derived from the illegal activities investigated in separate pieces." And at the same time, they developed a strategy to justify the revenue derived from these activities.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office states in its indictment that, at least from the end of 1998 until 2009, Correa led a corporate and personal network to enrichhimself in an unlawful manner from public funds.

"In exchange for the corresponding commission, they obtained public contracts, both for companies and for third parties, and by concealing the profits made from this activity," the prosecutor said.

According to Anticorruption, Correa had "contracts for the purchase of public offices". The corporate structure was mainly dedicated to organizing events and travel.

"And under its direction, continued action was taken to conceal revenue from the Treasury and to unduly deduct expenses," he said.

The Public Prosecutor's Office has explained that, to this end, Correa and Crespo had the "consent" of other defendants to form "a plot to make false invoices "for" three purposes ": the purchase of public offices, through the creation of obscure funds for the Treasury and outside the legal economic circuit --" box B "-- the reduction of the tax base in corporate tax returns, the simulation of unreal expenses and the concealment of revenue received, and the concealment of the actual ownership, origin and destination of the funds.

Prior to the disclosure of the agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Anti-Corruption Court had requested 77 years' imprisonment for the two leaders of Gürtel, to whom the National High Court has granted the third degree after serving several years' imprisonment for other parts of the case.

The other defendants

The investigating judge of the case, José de la Mata, also decided in 2020 to try the tax advisers Luis de Miguel and Ramón Blanco, as well as businessmen and alleged lenders for evading payments to the Treasury and concealing the economic resources obtained by the natural and legal persons under investigation.

With regard to economic responsibilities, the magistrate reflected the amounts to be faced by the accused, in accordance with the requests made in the indictments, totalling more than 199 million euros.