Laurence Dollimore
THE former mayor of Marbella Julian Muñoz has died aged 76 following a long battle with cancer and other health problems.
The disgraced politician passed away at the HC Hospital in Marbella, after being left blinded in one eye by diabetes and suffering multiple heart attacks and a stroke in recent years.
He was surrounded by his wife Mayte Zadivar and their two daughters, alongside other relatives and friends.
READ MORE: What was the Malaya scandal in Marbella? All you need to know
Muñoz (pictured above at a court appearance) had been admitted on Sunday, September 15 and had ‘hardly been awake’ during his last week of treatment.
His body has been transferred to the San Bernabe Funeral home ahead of a service.
Muñoz started his career as a waiter before entering the world of politics as a councillor for Marbella under the watchful eye of Jesus Gil in 1991.
Gil was forced to resign and was briefly imprisoned in 2002, after €390 million was left unaccounted for in the city council’s coffers.
Muñoz filled his place and was Mayor of Marbella between May 2, 2002, and August 13, 2003.
He reached a national level of fame after having a fling with legendary Spanish singer Isabel Pantoja.
But in July 2006, Muñoz was arrested for his role in one of the biggest urban planning corruption schemes in Spanish history.
As part of ‘Malaya case’, Muñoz was convicted of a string of charges, including bribery, misappropriation of public funds and the granting of illegal licences.
He was granted conditional release in 2021 due to his declining health.
The infamous Malaya case uncovered a €2.4 billion embezzlement ring that involved dozens of councillors, a series of mayors, a famous flamenco singer, a German countess and at one point even former James Bond star Sean Connery as a side act.
The scale of the corruption proved so pervasive that control of Marbella town hall had to be temporarily handed over to a caretaker administration appointed by the Junta until local elections could take place in 2007.
The puppet master was the infamous Juan Antonio Roca, who was born into humble beginnings in Cartagena, Murcia, in 1953, before moving to Marbella in 1991 after his development company Comarsa was declared bankrupt.
Once through the golden arches he enjoyed a meteoric rise starting as the then mayor Jesus Gil’s chauffeur to becoming the councillor for Urban Planning for 11 years until 2003.
While there, he launched an unprecedented campaign of accepting bribes in exchange for building licences from a string of developers.
In just four years alone (from 2002 to 2006) a total of 19 agents are said to have paid more than €33 million to Roca and his cohorts.
It is alleged that during his time in office, Roca amassed a fortune worth at least €125 million, including a string of properties, a huge collection of exotic animals and a private art portfolio that included a Miro, worth millions, that he kept in the loo.
A dedicated website was set up to auction off €75 million worth of his properties, cars, works of art and furniture in an effort to claw back enough cash to settle civil liability claims from Marbella Town Hall and the tax authorities.
It was through Roca that Bond star Sean Connery’s name was dragged in, with allegations of tax dodging and fraud over the sale of his famous villa, Malibu, on the Golden Mile.
It was eventually demolished to make way for 74 luxury apartments and the Scottish actor was eventually cleared of any involvement in the case.
Roca was eventually jailed for 20 years and paroled after he had served 12.
Muñoz – nicknamed ‘Cachuli’ or ‘chancer’ – also successfully rose from nothing to become the mayor of Marbella in little more than a decade.
As the boyfriend of the famous singer Isabel Pantoja, his face frequently appeared in gossip magazines throughout Spain.
During his short term in office he publicly fell out with Roca who had him ousted as mayor.
He was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for perverting the course of justice, embezzlement and bribery, but released in 2021 due to a ‘severe and incurable illness’.
Many doubted this claim, as he was regularly spotted at the Real Padel club in Marbella and various golf clubs, enjoying cheeseburgers and glasses of wine. However his illnesses were genuine.
