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The accused Medina and Luceño appear this Monday for the first time before the judge instructing the open case against them
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The crimes of aggravated fraud, falsity in a commercial document, money laundering and concealment of assets are investigated
We have already seen and heard them in a judicial headquarters, that of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. But Luis Medina and Alberto Luceno They have not yet seen each other face to face before the judge who is handling their case, the head of the Court of Instruction number 47 of Madrid, Adolfo Carter. This Monday they will have an opportunity to explain how their participation in the sale to the Madrid City Council of masks, gloves and antigen tests in the worst of the pandemic in exchange for millionaire commissions.
His explanations did not convince the Anticorruption prosecutor assigned to the Masks case, Luis Rodriguez Solwhich after almost 17 months of investigation decided to file a complaint against both for the crimes of Aggravated fraud, false commercial document and money laundering. The list was later expanded with the uplift of goodsafter verifying that they got rid of the goods acquired with their astronomical benefits, despite the fact that they were already being investigated by the public ministry.
How did you contact the Madrid City Council?
One of the key points to know how far the judicial investigations will go is to know how they contacted the Madrid City Council to offer to acquire masks in China just at the time when they were the most sought-after product. Anti-corruption affirms in its complaint that “lhe person who initially contacted the Madrid City Council was Luis Medinataking advantage his status as a well-known character in public life and his friendship with a relative of the mayorJosé Luis Martínez-Almeida, from Madrid. This is his cousin “the handsome one”, the lawyer Carlos Martinez-Almeida.
This is how they reached the general coordinator of City Council Budgets, Elena Collado, with whom Luceño only dealt with to formalize the contracts and, at one point, even jokingly ask him for a medal for his work. The Madrid councilor maintains that his cousin only provided him with an email to address and that he has never been called to testify by Anti-Corruption, which excludes any favored treatment.
Why do they charge such high commissions?
In the three contracts signed between the Funeral Services and Cemeteries Company of Madrid and the Malaysian company from San Chin Choon Three contracts were signed. commissions paid by masks were 60% of what is paid by the municipal entity, 81% with the gloves and 71% with the testsone of whose games did not even serve to detect the virus.
This is the point where the versions of the two defendants can differ the most, because Medina assures that what he charged is part of the expected margin in this type of business and Luceño deceived him, because he charged three times more than him. In the masks, the first charged a million dollars and the second, three, and in practically the same proportion they shared the gloves. In the tests is where there is less difference ($ 915,000 received by Medina and 2.1 million, Luceño). When Collado, when checking the price at which they are sold in a supermarket, warns that they have been scammed with the gloves, Luceño returns 4 million of his commissionalthough he passes it off as having negotiated with the Malaysian company.
Why do they provide false documents to justify it?
The Madrid company paid the Malaysian company a total of $11,14,330 via transfers to a Malayan Banking Berhard (Maybank) account. From Malaysia, Luceño received 5.1 million dollars at his bank in Madrid, which asked him to justify the move. He did so by providing several documents that turned out to be false, including a letter in which presents itself as the exclusive agent of the Malaysian company for the supply and procurement of frozen meat (including health protection products) for import and export to China. All of them were made by Luceño himself, according to Anticorruption. And he repeated the operation when Medina found himself in the same situation, when his bank received a transfer of one million from Malaysia.
Why did they spend the money so fast?
Neither of them wasted time in spending the money received. Luceño spent 60,000 euros on a stay in a hotel, he bought three Rolex watches and seven high-end cars (only one of them, the Ferrari, cost 355,000 euros), as well as a house in the Madrid town of Pozuelo de Alarcón for 1,107,400 euros. For its part, Medina bought a yacht for 325,515 euros which he called Feria in honor of the noble family title and invested in financial titles.
To guarantee the civil responsibility to which both can be sentenced, Judge Adolfo Carretero has imposed bail on them. Not being able to cover them with the assets in his possession, because they have been disposed of, he decreed the seizure of his assets and in the case of Merino, of his grandmother’s inheritance that may correspond to him. In his appearances before the prosecutor, he warned them that they would commit a new crime of concealment of assets if they got rid of any of them, because he was formally investigating them.