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El Pas

Jos Manuel Romero, Oct 27, 2014

Brcenas parallel bookkeeping and Grtels kickbacks have Spains


Partido Popular (PP) up against the ropes

Judge Pablo Ruz, who has been investigating the Grtel case since June 24, 2010, as
well as collateral proceedings in the case against Luis Brcenas since March 2013,
has begun to prepare the order to initiate oral hearings against those accused of
public corruption activities dating back to 2005. With this effort, the judge hopes to
charge and prosecute 45 individuals, including three former mayors of
municipalities in the Community of Madrid, as well as former PP national treasurer,
Luis Brcenas.

If the appeal made by the PP is unsuccessful, this corruption scandal, which broke
out in February 2009 will end up implicating the party as being the beneficiary of
some of the offenses committed, in which case it will be forced to pay more than
300,000 euros.

This direct legal consequence, stemming from its relationship with corrupt figures
who organized all the partys campaign events, is just a small part of the copious
evidence that Judge Ruz continues to collect on the PPs involvement in many of the
acts being investigated.

Today, the Judge is examining ngel Acebes, the first former secretary general of
the PP to be charged in the case. He is accused of authorizing the purchase of
shares of Libertad Digital with money derived from the parallel bookkeeping system
controlled by Luis Brcenas. Ruz has charged Acebes with breach of fiduciary duty
by omission, meaning that he failed to ensure that funds allocated to buy shares in
Libertad Digital were returned to the party. Brcenas and Lapuerta, according to the
investigation, pocketed the money after selling the shares.

Favors in exchange for lavish gifts. Some months ago, Judge Ruz requested the
official bylaws for PPs Madrid and national chapters in order to determine who had
obtained benefits in exchange for gifts given to two mayors: Jess Seplveda
(Pozuelo de Alarcn), and Guillermo Ortega (Majadahonda). The Grtel network
carried out campaign events for PP candidates in these two municipalities without
charging for its services. In exchange, the group benefitted from fixed contracts,
according to the investigation. Upon reviewing the official bylaws, the Anti-

corruption Prosecutors Office determined that the national PP branch was the final
beneficiary of the favors given in exchange for the gifts, even if they did not know
from where they originated. As a result, the party must be held financially
responsible for their actions.

The evidence includes other similar gifts given during events in which national PP
leaders were involved. Amongst the papers confiscated by the police in an industrial
warehouse in Alcorcn (Madrid), where the corrupt figures stored a vast amount of
their records, are several invoices related to activities during Jos Mara Aznars
campaign in 2002. The network of corrupt figures never received money from the PP
for their services.

Tax fraud due to illegal donations. The PP, according to the Judge, received
illegal donations on which no taxes were paid to the tax authorities. In 2008, these
allegedly fraudulent donations amounted to more than the legal limit of 120,000
euros. The PP amassed 1,055,000 euros in donations, which constitutes a tax crime.
Judge Ruz, as well as the Anti-corruption Prosecutor, stated that the donations
exceed the legal limit and are therefore subject to corporate tax laws, as they are
taxable income. However, Spains tax authority, in a report sent to the judge, has
expressed a different interpretation of the law. The report states that the Political
Party Financing Law doesnt stipulate that noncompliance with the conditions and
limitations assigned to private donations will have tax consequences. These illegal
donations constitute a serious infraction punishable [only] by a fine to be imposed
by the Audit Tribunal.

Construction at national headquarters. From 2007 to 2008 the PP completely


renovated its headquarters located at No 13 Gnova Street, hiring the architect
Gonzalo Urquijo for the job. Judge Pablo Ruz believes that part of the construction
was paid for with unreported money derived from funds controlled by former
treasurer Luis Brcenas, to the tune of 1.7 million euros. Judge Ruz points to three
offenses as a result of this activity: crimes against the tax authorities, falsification of
documents, and account tampering. This is one of the many sides to the Brcenas
case, which has resulted in charges brought against the former treasurer, the
architect, and three other collaborators in the architects firm.

Party headquarters located in La Rioja and Vizcaya paid for under the
table. The police have sent a report to the National Court in which evidence is
presented that the PP laundered 200,000 euros in 2008 in order to purchase part of
the new party headquarters in La Rioja, whose total cost was 309,000 euros. This
transaction was entered in the separate set of books maintained by Brcenas used
to finance numerous party expenditures. At that time, the former treasurer recorded
the transfer of 200,000 euros from La Rioja to the illicit fund, while the official

accountants of the PP earmarked the same sum of 200,000 euros for the purchase
of the headquarters. With this operation, PP leaders in La Rioja were able to
allegedly launder some illegal donations they received. The police investigation also
states that a similar operation was used to illegally finance the purchase of PP
headquarters in Vizcaya.

The Toledo garbage collection contract. Judge Ruz is also investigating if the
Castilla-La Mancha branch of the PP received 200,000 euros from Luis Brcenas
allegedly originating from the Sacyr Corporation as a contribution to the party for
being awarded the garbage collection contract for Toledo municipality. A receipt
written and signed in 2007 by then director of the PP in Castilla-La Mancha, Jos
ngel Caas, is evidence of the alleged payment of illegal commissions. The Judge
did not believe the version of events given by Caas, who declared that he had
never received the money, despite what he signed. Caas claims furthermore that
he was forced to write the receipt by Brcenas, and he agreed to sign it out of fear
of losing his job. An expert report requested by Judge Ruz points to more serious
irregularities in the multimillion euro garbage collection contract that the Toledo
municipality, at the time governed by the PP, awarded a few months before the
alleged transfer of funds from Sacyr. Last week, Ruz brought charges against former
Toledo mayor Jos Manuel Molina for his involvement in awarding the contract.

Comments on the Translation:


The phrase caja b appears again and again in this text and finding an
adequate translation was key to properly describing what type of illegal activity Luis
Brcenas was engaging in. After doing some research and consulting with
colleagues, it was determined that Brcenas, as the national treasurer for the
Partido Popular (PP) had been keeping a separate set of books and entering
transactions into them that were subsequently hidden from the public. This type of
activity is known as parallel bookkeeping.
There were several other legal terms that required some research and a bit of
extrapolation in order to find common equivalents in similar cases that have taken
place in the United States. For example, regalos is used in the text, which I then
rendered as kickbacks. Kickbacks is a well-known term in American political
corruption cases and fits this situation perfectly. Specific charges and legal
proceedings required background research of the facts surrounding the case to

correctly translate them. Pieza separada is one example of this. After reading
more sources about the Grtel and Brcenas cases, as well as consulting SpanishEnglish law dictionaries, it was determined that the case against Brcenas is being
handled in separate or collateral proceedings. Another example is apropiacin
indebida por omisin. Although this is usually known as misappropriation of funds,
former PP secretary general ngel Acebes powers of financial oversight and failure
to act means that he violated his fiduciary duties due to negligence, which led to
the decision to translate this offense as breach of fiduciary duty by omission
Perhaps the term that was most problematic and required the most
background reading and research was participacin a ttulo lucrativo. I was not
familiar with this offense and so I looked for news articles in order to find other
cases with the same charge. I came across some articles on the corruption case
against Ana Mato, head of the Madrid health ministry, in which this same phrase
was used. It turns out that Mato had accepted lavish gifts from private entities in
exchange for favors from the government. Reading a bit further, I was able to
determine which gifts and favors were allegedly exchanged, which led to the
inclusion of lavish in the final translation of this phrase, which finally came out as
Favors in exchange for lavish gifts. Although the accused cant serve jail time for
this offense, they must financially reimburse any affected parties.
This text was a perfect example of a translation that needed more details and
information in order for my target audience to understand what is happening in
these corruption cases in the Spanish government. The average Spanish citizen
reading the original text already has most of the context and is perhaps familiar
with the names and circumstances behind the alleged corruption.

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