Luis Medina, in the courts of Plaza de Castilla (Madrid), last April. KIKE PARA
The manager of Madrid Salud, Antonio Prieto, explained to the judge this Friday that part of the documentation that supported the masks of the commission agents Luis Medina and Alberto Luceño did not comply with the regulations.
According to the minutes of his statement, to which EL PAÍS had access, the municipal official has detailed that one of the certificates that accompanied the masks violated the regulation and that, in addition, they verified that there was "an alert from the Ministry" of Labor regarding the same.
Another part of the papers was in Chinese and was not translated.
"What was required of me was that the documentation was acceptable and that the seller was not prohibited in Spain," Prieto told the investigating judge Adolfo Carretero, who is investigating Luceño and Medina for allegedly defrauding the Madrid City Council with the sale of material healthcare — masks, gloves and coronavirus tests — during the worst of the pandemic.
According to the manager's version, Madrid Salud never said that the masks were not used because they could not analyze the quality of the masks, but they did say that part of the documentation did not comply with the regulations.
A subsequent report from the Municipal Police endorsed its use.
“I don't know why the report was commissioned from the Municipal Police.
I don't know what qualifications the municipal police officer who made the report had," added Prieto.
More information
An email in the name of San Chin Choon supports the version of commission agents Medina and Luceño: "The operation is correct"
However, the official has stressed to the magistrate that, in his opinion, the masks "were good."
“They were distributed to people from the City Council.
There were no complaints.
They were happy with their adaptation to the face [...] I have used them.
They have not broken for me ”, Prieto, a family doctor and public health specialist, who has appeared as a witness this Friday, has added.
Prieto has also stressed that he did not know that this material had been provided by Luceño and Medina: “These masks were one more [...] He did not know Medina and Luceño.
No one called me because it was them."
The
Medina and Luceño case
is currently focused on two main fronts: evaluating the quality of the sanitary material provided by the suspects and trying to obtain the statement of San Chin Choon, the Malaysian businessman who supplied the commission agents with the products they sold to the City Council. .
This week, Judge Adolfo Carretero has urged the Asian to travel to Spain to testify in the case.
The magistrate has received several emails from an alleged Choon, where he defends the thesis of the two defendants: "The operation is correct and was carried out without any irregularity [...] At no time was a quality problem communicated to me," he said. the
.
However, Mario Tabasco, head of Occupational Risks of the Consistory, declared last June that the masks "did not meet the requirements of the European Union" and that, in addition, he verified that the fastening area of the ears "broke easily". .
"I don't know if they were valid or not, they just didn't meet EU requirements," he added before the judge: "The mask didn't have a rubber band.
Visually, they were not like normal masks… The ear hook system tore when separated… This material was glued together and had to be separated, and it tore easily.
It tore what was fastened on the ears.
And if it broke, it had to be thrown away because the mask could not be used.
I opened one or two, and one of them broke.”
The investigating judge Adolfo Carretero considers it "useful" to delve into the "quality of the masks" supplied, although the person in charge of Purchasing of the City Council, Elena Collado, assured that they were "valid".
"Apart from the fact that Collado is not an expert to determine it, there is an email from Tabasco where she doubts the quality."
The manager of Madrid Salud has also indicated this Friday that they detected deficiencies in one of the three test batches of the commission agents and that, in this case, they did explicitly recommend that they not be used.
According to his version, then they tried to return it, but it was not possible and they ended up expired.
Medina and Luceño remain imputed for crimes of aggravated fraud, money laundering and documentary falsification —the first, 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, deceitfully 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.”
The Tax Agency has also asked to appear as an accusation against them.