James Bryce
OVER €17 million was paid out fraudulently by the Junta in the so-called ERE scandal.
So far 196 individuals have been found to have received unlawful subsidies between 2001 and 2010, with 45 more – including nine members of the PSOE party – still under investigation.
The evidence, which spreads over 20,000 pages and 45 volumes, is still being analysed by Judge Mercedes Alaya.
What about the Andalucian Junta-Mafia set-up which pays out millions in pensions each year to fraudulent, but failed company’s. Some say as much a 1000 million euros, mostly scammed from hard working Spanish nationals is involved, the rest from the EU. These crooks should be dipped in hot oil for the suffering they cause.
If comments from the financial gurus are even CLOSE to accurate – and Spain MUST increase investor confidence to really help solve its problem – the political corruption & theft of taxpayers’ money needs to be judged harshly.
As history shows, “sweeping it under the carpet” doesn’t help
at all. All THAT approach shows is that “Crime DOES pay”
Dear readers; anything new on the block? Think not,as I did some reading about another (well known)phenomena, i.e.the “ounderground economy”in Spain ( according to study by University of Linz,Austra by Victor Mallet et al,dated summer 2011) to be more than 19 % of its GDP.We are talking huge numbers here, billions of euro’s not being collected by either the 17 independent regions and the central government( I stopped calculating how many BILLIONS were pocketed by individuals while (central and regional)government are looking for funds to pay for healthcare(responsibility of the regions),education(responsibility of the regions)and social services in general.(For those more interested in this phenomena, please take the time to read “Size and causes of the underground economy in Spain”dated januari 2012 by Michael Pickhardt, University of Cottbus,Dept.of Economics, Germany.Didn’t I read the word “criminal”in this “paper” ?
There is a “silver lining”after all(sort of), as the Spanish government seemed to be able to get hold on some five(5) billion euros in undeclared taxes, apparently using a CD provided by someone, with some 2000 (!) names of europeans( Greeks included) with bank accounts in Switserland.(Greek media dated october 2, 2012).So there is justice after all.