Chloe Glover (Reporter)
JUDGES in Sevilla have slammed Junta boss Susana Diaz’s claims that there is a conspiracy against the PSOE in Andalucia.
It comes after two ex-Junta presidents were officially ordered to stand trial in the ERE case, that is set to begin this Autumn.
In total, 22 socialist politicians, civil servants and the ex-leaders will face trial over the corruption case that involves the theft of almost one billion euros over a decade.
Diaz, the current president insists she was not involved and claims the announcement of the trial was ‘politically-motivated’ to deflect attention away from the PP government’s own corruption problems.
The scandal – that involved fake redundancy payouts and bogus company subsidies from a shady slush fund – has taken over five years to unravel and get to court.
Prosecutors in Sevilla are demanding six years in prison and 30 years of disqualification from public office for ex-leader Jose Antonio Grinan for alleged embezzlement of public money and prevarication.
They are also calling for one year in prison and 10 years disqualification for his predecessor Manuel Chaves, who served from 1990 to 2009, for alleged provocation.
The other 20 figures face prison sentences and were all involved in handing out or taking €885m from the so-called ‘reptile fund’, which was run from the Junta’s coffers in Sevilla.
One of those accused, ex-Employment Minister Francisco Guerrero had a ‘cocaine chauffeur’, who admitted to spending 25,000 euros a month on prostitutes and drugs.
Under the scheme, hundreds received bogus early retirement payments, often for companies they had never even worked for.
These payments came through the misuse of so-called ERE payments, which were meant to be special payments to help financially-troubled companies enact redundancies.
Most of the 900 million euros stolen were EU and central government funds …. it went on for 10 years and now over 5 years later nobody has been prosecuted and no funds recovered…. what a waste of taxpayers money and the really sad part was it was to help the poor but 25k a month went on coke and hookers alone.
If they stole 900m how much was the actual total amount of development funds being handed out… 10 billion? … did anyone in the EU or central government notice 90 million a year being stolen before more funds were handed over the following year ?