There is no truce between the Madrid City Council and Luis Medina: "They hid the commissions"

The days of wine and roses shared by commission agent Luis Medina and the Madrid City Council have come to an end.

With the progress of the judicial investigation, the battle between the two has begun, immersed in the scandal over the almost six million euros that the brother of the Duke of Feria and his partner, Alberto Luceño, charged for the sale of defective sanitary material to the Consistory in the worst of the pandemic.

“It cannot be accepted that the City Council is an accusation in a matter where it has agreed with the investigated contracts,” Medina reproached in a letter sent to Judge Adolfo Carretero, where he asked him to expel the Administration from the investigations.

A few words to which the government of José Luis Martínez-Almeida has responded:

More information

The Madrid City Council informed the Prosecutor's Office of another alleged millionaire scam with the sale of masks

This intersection of recriminations opens a new chapter.

The letter of thanks to the businessmen that the mayor himself signed for their "generous donation" of masks and the deferences so that they could divert part of the product to the hospital where the wife of one of them worked are very far away.

"Exorbitant increase."

The legal services of the City Council have sent a letter to the judge this Friday to respond to Medina's attempt to expel them from the case.

The commission agent reproached the Consistory that he could not present himself now as "injured" from an operation that he had never denounced —it was the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office that sued the businessmen—.

But the Administration revolts against said argumentation and attacks the investigated, charged with fraud, money laundering, falsehood and concealment of assets.

“The core issue of the fraud is not limited to the fact that the goods had not been delivered or that the quality of the goods was lower than agreed,” explains the Consistory, “but rather to the fact that the defendants set the prices, hiding from the City Council that a A high percentage of such prices corresponded to the commissions that [they] themselves were going to receive.”

According to the letter, this maneuver "supposed an exorbitant increase in the price of the contracted products", which implied an "economic damage" for the coffers of the municipal Administration.

The Prosecutor's Office denounced that Medina and Luceño pocketed almost six million euros thanks to the fact that they "artificially inflated" the amount of the products with crazy commissions: they came to represent 60% of the price of the masks;

71% of the tests, and 81% of the gloves.

Now, the Public Prosecutor's Office supports that the Consistory continues to appear in the case as a victim and also leaves a reproach to the brother of the Duke of Feria: "[In his letter] he excludes statements by a witness that clearly point to the possibility that the City Council has been the victim of a crime, the clearest of which is the one contained in a message sent to one of those investigated on April 8, 2020, the date of receipt of the nitrile gloves, and in which it is stated: 'We have been ripped off for sure."

“The masks were of very good quality.”

The forcefulness of the City Council is not unexpected.

It occurs after Medina tried to expel him from the case with a harsh previous letter, dated last week.

In his defense, the commissioner said that the Consistory has not been harmed “in any way” with this purchase of medical supplies: “All the masks arrived, which were of very good quality;

for the gloves, the difference was returned to them;

and as for the tests, there is no evidence that, once the reagent was received, they did not work”.

In addition, he added that the Administration never presented a "claim for these contracts, reliable proof that it was in agreement with them and with the result."

"Now you can't come here to complain," he said.

With the mayor surrounded by pressure from the opposition, the brother of the Duke of Feria put his finger on the sore spot and warned that the investigations "could" end up pointing to the City Council itself.

“It is one of the signatory parties of the investigated businesses (fully accepting and initialing them).

And, in the event that the proceedings show that there has been an irregularity, the responsibility could fall on said institution, "said Medina.

A thesis to which the Almeida government also responds this Friday: “The Consistory, as a legal-public person with a territorial base [...], cannot in any case have the status of being investigated, since they do not apply to it. provisions relating to the criminal liability of legal persons.

The PSOE defends that the Consistory continues in the cause

The PSOE has presented this Friday a brief where it defends that the City Council remains in person in the case as harmed, while it differentiates "well" between the institution as such and the people who may have intervened in the events investigated.

In this line, the Socialists will request that the person in charge of Purchases of the Consistory who interacted with the commission agents, Elena Collado, who will testify as a witness on May 9, be charged.

The party wants her condition to be modified "so that she can have an adequate defense and [her interrogation of her] be carried out with all guarantees."

Collado was the senior official who, after detecting irregularities, wrote a

to Luceño that said: “We have been scammed for sure.”

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