San Chin Choon returns to the scene.
Judge Adolfo Carretero, who is investigating Luis Medina and Alberto Luceño for an alleged fraud against the Madrid City Council during the pandemic, has reported that last week he received an email sent, "apparently", by this Malaysian businessman, who supplied those investigated the medical material sold to the Consistory and that allowed them to pocket almost six million euros in commissions.
In said message, to which EL PAÍS had access, the alleged Choon supports the version of the accused: "The operation is correct and was carried out without any irregularity [...] At no time was a quality problem communicated to me," it reads. the writ awarded to the head of the Asian company Leno Sdn Bhd.
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Spain already tried in 2021 to contact San Chin Choon to obtain his version and requested the collaboration of the Malaysian authorities, usually reluctant to cooperate.
According to what the Asian country reported then, they had located the businessman, but he refused to testify.
In his email, Leno's representative assures that in 2022 he moved to testify and that it was never sent to court.
Choon defends that on April 18 of this year, once the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office had already filed its complaint against the commission agents, Luceño notified him of the investigation, so he went to "make an affidavit, certifying that the operation was correct and certifying the documents.
According to his version,
These alleged statements have never reached Judge Carretero through official channels, who was very skeptical about the possibility of collecting his version.
In fact, when informing the parties of the mail on Monday, he emphasizes that the sender would be Choon - "apparently", he emphasizes in his letter - but does not grant him 100% credibility.
Until now, the only reference was through an interview granted to the Efe agency, where Leno's representative insisted that the operation was "clean."
Now, in the document attached to the email sent to the court, the alleged Choon expands on that thesis.
He says that he has been doing business with Luceño for "a few years."
And he adds: “I met him at a meeting in China for commercial operations, mainly chicken and soybeans.
He was introduced to me by a commercial agent who had been collaborating with him for a long time in international commercial relations”.
About Luis Medina, brother of the current Duke of Feria, he affirms that he has never had personal contact with him, nor has he maintained any type of communication.
Throughout eight pages, the alleged Choon strives to validate the commissions and the documents provided by the accused to justify the money they pocketed.
Some papers that Anticorruption considers to have been falsified.
Along these lines, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has already confirmed that they used "false models", with "old logos", to present themselves as "exclusive agents" of Leno.
However, according to the email there has been an "error" with the dates.
A version that the public ministry does not believe.
The passport of San Chin Choon, alleged contact of the commission agents in Leno, which the businessmen provided to the authorities.
The Prosecutor's Office points out numerous inconsistencies in the documents provided by the commission agents to justify itself.
For example, the papers that accredited them as "exclusive agents" of Leno are dated "Thursday, September 12, 2018", when that day was Wednesday.
They were apparently signed two years before the operation under suspicion, despite the fact that Medina assured that he had never had a relationship with that company before brokering the sale to the City Council.
In the header, in addition to the data from the International Chamber of Commerce, Luceño also included the addresses of the FBI and Interpol.
And the one that Medina sent to his bank and the one that Luceño sent to his are exactly the same, except for one detail: the one from the brother of the Duke of Feria includes both of them as agents,
The alleged San Chin Choon maintains that, despite never having dealt with Medina, he named him his exclusive agent.
And he adds that the “error in the dates” responds to the fact that they worked with “drafts” and “everyone” “forgot to update” that data.
The businessman defends the role played by the two commission agents to place the material —gloves, masks and tests— at the City Council.
“[Without them], he would not have been able to sell them for various reasons.
At that time it was not possible to contact private companies directly, but had to do so through authorized government companies or governments.
And for that he needed the agents: so that he could serve the merchandise.
The agents with whom I have signed agreements bring experience in the international market.
Without this experience it would not have been possible to close any international operation”.
The alleged Choon also supports the commission that they took and assures that it is part of the total cost paid by the City Council.
“The price of the products would have been the same.
You don't sell at a higher price because you have agents.
Without them there is no operation”.
In addition, the email justifies that Luceño took higher commissions: "An agent who brings experience and works the operation cannot have the same margin, since he does all the work, than one who only sends a phone number of a possible buyer".
The Prosecutor's Office believes that Luceño managed the amount of the commissions at his whim and that he even took part from Medina after one of the sales failed.
The judge keeps Medina and Luceño charged with crimes of aggravated fraud, money laundering and document falsity - the former, in addition, attributes concealment of assets.
The Prosecutor's Office denounced that the two businessmen deceived the City Council with three operations to purchase masks, gloves and tests.
"These three contracts, in which Luceño and Medina were involved, constitute a criminalized legal business," the instructor stressed in a resolution: "Luceño, in total collusion with Medina, deceived and for profit concealed from the City Council that the price of the masks had risen by 60%, that of gloves by 81% and that of tests by 71%, as a result of the commissions that they had agreed on.”
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