The former Andalusian councilor Antonio Fernández was sentenced to seven years in prison for a cause of the ERE

The macrocause of the

that, after multiple files and prescriptions, links 132 separate pieces, diminishes, although very slowly. After the political piece failed in November 2019, the Court of Seville has issued this Friday morning the second sentence linked to the fraudulent aid plot. The third section of the court has sentenced the former Socialist Employment Minister of the Board, Antonio Fernández, to seven years in prison for the aid granted to the company Aceitunas y Conservas (Acyco), considering him the author of a continued crime of prevarication and a crime of falsehood in an official document, both in medial competition with another of embezzlement of public funds, for their intervention in the concession of 2.9 million euros to (Acyco).

The court has also sanctioned the former socialist counselor with another sentence of absolute disqualification of 17 years and 15 days. Fernández had already been sentenced to another seven years and 11 months in prison for embezzlement and continued prevarication in the political piece of the ERE, in November 2019. The Seville Court then concluded the macro-trial with prison sentences for a total of 68 years and the disqualification for 258 years of two former presidents of the Junta de Andalucía, Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán, and 11 former senior officials of socialist governments.

The former Labor Minister of the Board between 2004 and 2010 also has several open cases pending for other separate pieces of the same corruption case. His defense appealed his involvement in the process for the aid to Acyco alleging that the seventh section had excluded the former senior officials convicted in the political case because they understood that they could not be tried again for the same facts, but the third court rejected that previous question.

In addition to Fernández, the former General Director of Labor, Juan Márquez, has also been sentenced to four years in prison and 10 years of absolute disqualification.

Five implicated outside the Board have also been sanctioned with sentences of between two and five years in prison, while three other former high-ranking Administration officials —the former Deputy Minister of Employment, Agustín Barberá;

the former director of Labor, Daniel Alberto Rivera, and the former general director of the IFA-IDEA agency, Miguel Ángel Serrano—, have been acquitted.

Except for Rivera, the rest were also convicted in the political piece judged in November 2019. The seven convicted of aid to Acyco must compensate the Board with a little three million euros, jointly and severally.

“Clamorous irregularities and illegalities”

The facts that have been judged now date back to 2003, when Fernández was deputy minister of Labor and president of the Governing Council of the IFA. On July 3 of that year, the company Acyco, based in Dos Hermanas (Seville), submitted to the Employment Delegation of Seville the request for an ERE for the termination of the employment relationship of 35 workers. On the 23rd of that same month, the termination of labor contracts was authorized. The magistrates, in their 332-page sentence, consider it proven that the economic support of the Board to defray the cost of these early retirements,as well as the inclusion in them of two "intruders" -people who do not meet the conditions to be beneficiaries of these aids- was due "exclusively" to the personal relationship that the president of the board of directors of Acyco had with the then general director of Labor, Francisco Javier Guerrero —the main defendant in the ERE macro-cause and ultimately responsible for the administration of the “fraudulent” and “illegal” system that caused an “absolute lack of control” over 680 million euros in social and labor aid―, and that , upon passing away in October 2020, has also been exonerated from the Acyco case.Francisco Javier Guerrero —the main convict in the ERE macro-cause and ultimately responsible for the administration of the “fraudulent” and “illegal” system that caused an “absolute lack of control” over 680 million euros in social and labor aid—, and who, when he died as of October 2020, he has also been cleared of the Acyco case.Francisco Javier Guerrero —the main convict in the ERE macro-cause and ultimately responsible for the administration of the “fraudulent” and “illegal” system that caused an “absolute lack of control” over 680 million euros in social and labor aid—, and who, when he died as of October 2020, he has also been cleared of the Acyco case.

The room considers that the policies corresponding to these two intruders "were accepted and assumed" by Guerrero "with the consent and authorization" of Fernández, who was then president of the governing council of the IFA, who "in the end was going to be in charge of the payment of the policy”. Both, states the sentence, knew that this payment had been made "without the control of the expense by the auditors of the Ministry of Employment." The magistrates also highlight that the aid was granted "without a prior formal request from the beneficiary company and without a file instruction and written resolution."

This entire process was carried out through the famous “financing transfers”, the payment system through which the funds destined for the ERE were fraudulently distributed, in accordance with the ruling of the political piece of November 2019 and whose definition and legality focused a good part of that macro-trial. The magistrates maintain that this mechanism was used "as a system to avoid the application of subsidy laws and grant social and labor aid to companies without any control."

Regarding the role of the former Minister of Employment, the sentence recalls that the amount of the subsidy to Acyco that Guerrero informed him of "would have forced him to present his concession for the approval and ratification of the Governing Council of the Board, given his condition of vice president of the governing council of the IFA”, a step that was not taken “admitting a subsidy that he knew lacked prior control of spending by the Intervention of the Ministry, which facilitated the diversion of public funds in favor of individuals”.

"The illegality was so evident," the ruling continues, "that it had to be known and consented to by the aforementioned deputy counselor [Fernández], since" it was granted verbally, omitting the obligation to register the subsidy in the established database. to the effect”. "We are faced with blatant irregularities and illegalities, which show the disregard for mandatory regulations and the arbitrariness in the granting of aid to Acyco", assert the magistrates.

Against the sentence issued this Friday, it is possible to file an appeal.

In the Supreme Court they are pending resolution filed at the time by those convicted in the political piece against a sentence that questioned the employment policy developed by different socialist governments.

The magistrates considered that the former leadership of the Board devised "a fraudulent system" with which it managed and distributed "without control" a fund of 680 million for companies in crisis.