The judge sends BBVA, its former president and 14 more people to trial for the commissions to Villarejo

BarcelonaThe judge of the Audiencia Nacional Antonio Piña has opened a oral trial against BBVA, its former president Francisco González and 14 other people, including former directors of the banking entity and police commanders, for a series of allegedly illegal commissions made to commissioner José Manuel Villarejo between 2004 and 2016. In the order opening the oral trial of piece 9 of the Tàndem case, the magistrate collects the indictments from the Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecutions and sends BBVA to trial for crimes of bribery and 52 crimes of discovery and revelation of secrets.

In the case of former president Francisco González, the instructor sends him to trial for crimes of active and passive bribery, 42 crimes of discovery and revelation of secrets, criminal group, disloyal administration and document forgery. Several former directors of the bank will also be tried for these same crimes. BBVA sources have indicated to the EFE agency that the entity has always maintained that no criminal responsibility for the entity derives from the investigated facts.

In its ruling, the magistrate sets an amount of 1,173,333 euros to secure civil liabilities with the warning that their assets will be seized if they do not deposit this bail within three days and designates the criminal chamber as the body responsible for the prosecution of these events. From now on, the lawyers of the investigated parties have a period of ten days to submit their defense statements and propose the evidence they deem appropriate for the oral hearing.

According to the judge's decision, in addition to the former leadership of the entity, its former Head of Security, the former police commissioner Julio Corrochano, and other police commanders linked to Villarejo will be seated in the dock. Also among the accused will be the former CEO of BBVA Ángel Cano, the former director of the bank's legal services Eduardo Arbizu, the former director of the entity's presidency office Joaquín Gortari, and the former director of the bank's Risks Antonio Béjar.

In his statement, the judge indicates that, in accordance with the criteria of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, it is appropriate to impose prison sentences on the accused, totaling 173 years for the former president of BBVA for crimes of active bribery and disclosure of secrets in the contracting of the company Cenyt, linked to the former commissioner. For Villarejo, 216 years in prison are requested, and 243 more, the highest penalty, for Corrochano.

Assignments authorized by the leadership

As the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office stated, the contracts exposed between BBVA and Cenyt, as well as the payments made for services provided under these assignments, were possible "because they were directly authorized by the entity's president and his highest executives". All this in a context in which the bank "did not have a prevention program that foresaw the eventual commission of illicit acts by the presidency".

Despite the fact that the contracts and payments "did not comply with all internal procedure rules relating to both the formalization of services and the processing and payment of invoices", the various employees who participated in their processing approved them, the document adds. This was due to "the firm and deep-rooted conviction that they had to comply with instructions from the presidency or senior executives regardless of whether these orders were compliant or not with the applicable internal regulations".