The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office is seeking a 173-year prison sentence for the former president of BBVA.

MadridFollowing the National Court's decision to send BBVA, as a legal entity, and its former president Francisco González to trial, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has made its move, demanding a 173-year prison sentence for the former executive and a fine of over €180 million for the financial institution. This is the prosecution's sentencing request in the espionage case related to the company of former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, as stated in the prosecution's indictment. Specifically, González faces a five-year prison sentence for continuous active bribery and an additional 168 years for 42 counts of disclosing and revealing secrets (four years for each count). However, sources within the public prosecutor's office specify that, if convicted, the maximum sentence the former BBVA president would serve is three times the most severe penalty imposed. Regarding the financial penalty for the bank, it amounts to nine million euros for one count of bribery (5,000 euros per day for five years) and another 172.8 million euros for 48 counts of disclosing secrets (5,000 euros per day for two years for each count). The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office believes this sentence is warranted due to the hiring of Villarejo between 2004 and 2016. During those years, the bank, then headed by González, contracted Cenyt, the retired police commissioner's company, to spy on the construction company Sacyr.

A month ago, the criminal division of the National Court ruled that there was sufficient evidence against BBVA and its former chairman, who presided over the bank between 2000 and 2018, as well as against twelve other individuals, including senior executives of the institution and police officers. The judges of the criminal division thus upheld the decision of the investigating judge in the case, former judge Manuel García Castellón. dictated in the summer of 2024The investigating magistrate's argument, corroborated a month ago, is that the entity's claim of ignorance regarding the events was not credible. As for González, the magistrates also interpreted that there is evidence suggesting the former president knew that the information Villarejo's company obtained was through practices that "did not respect the law." However, it should be noted that the current president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, is not listed as a suspect. BBVA is, for now, the first and only Ibex 35 company to go to trial in this case, while other implicated companies such as Repsol, CaixaBank, and Iberdrola have not been required to appear in court. This is the so-called Tándem case, the operation investigating Villarejo's spying on companies and individuals. The Bilbao-based entity will now go to trial in connection with separate case number 9, which García Castellón investigated starting in 2018. Before the investigating judge and the criminal division of the National Court decided to take the step of sending them an investigation into BBVA's earlier hiring of Police Commissioner Julio Corrochano—for whom the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office is seeking a 243-year prison sentence—in September 2002, with González's approval. This thread later linked the entity to Villarejo—who, in turn, faces a 174-year prison sentence.