Collaborators and repentant

Each organizational model, each “us” –business, family, gastronomic– has its own dynamics and tools. Public corruption forms a triangle with three vertices: the political, the technical, and the business one. Convicting sentences usually focus on the first angle and tend to ignore the other two prongs of the fork. But without officials who dress up the business with administrative neatness and without suppliers, intermediaries, or facilitators, the business would not run. In corporate corruption, it is also not common to get to the heart of the matter, beyond the greedy executive, the accommodating lawyer, or the inattentive internal auditor. Certainly, there must always be someone on duty, in the kitchen and in the dining room, ready to plate or fill the glass; but it is hard to believe that the top brass never knows anything about it. In the case of BBVA, it will go to trial –following the illegal commissions to commissioner Villarejo–, in addition to the head of security, the head of legal advice and the risk manager, its principal. And, even more infrequently, the entity itself as a legal person. Let no one be alarmed, because despite rigorous fiscal requests, none of the implicated executives have set foot in prison; nor has the accused former president, who is enduring the ordeal in summer resorts in Mallorca and Marbella. The bail imposed, so far, or the fine for the bank, if convicted, are peanuts for well-off economies. I am not exaggerating: the entity broke profit records in 2025 and will distribute a dividend of more than 5,200 million. Repsol or Caixabanc neither sat on the bench for equivalent facts, as a reward for the diligence observed, nor did they assume subsidiary civil liability, due to the waiver of the injured parties.The ruling in the Ábalos case is also one to be framed, as many diners do with the mythical menus of Michelin-starred restaurants. It says nothing about the civil servants, as if corrupt arrangements were not manipulated but rather handled at a self-service counter. But the most striking thing is the disproportion between the conviction of the politician and that of the businessman. The court does not see a trident with shared responsibility, but rather a skewer. Whoever can speak, let them speak…, that will be free of charge. It seems the invitation will take effect, given the debut of the entrepreneur Julito Martínez, we will see with what luck. I do not criticize the instrumental measures to bring to light hidden infractions nor the modulation of the penalty for each of those involved, but when the balance between utilitarianism and equanimity is broken, the message is dangerous. Success, both in court and in the kitchen, depends on getting the proportions right.

To correctly weigh reward and punishment, collaborators must be correctly labeled. A denouncer – who cooperates to repress dissent in authoritarian regimes – cannot be confused with a whistleblower – who raises their voice to protect the common good and deserves total immunity.– with a whistleblower – who raises their voice to protect the common good and deserves total immunity–. Nor can any collaborator be branded as repentant. The pentiti of the mafia may find it very costly to break the omertà, the law of silence. Betrayal is repaid with life and unconditional rejection by the Famiglia,  a name also given to the hierarchical and structured group that controls illegal businesses in a territory. Giuseppa Mandarano, wife of Marco Favaloro, indicted and pentito for the murder of Libero Grassi (the businessman who refused to pay the pizzo, the Cosa Nostra's blackmail), abandoned him for being "infamous". When they are the rebels, the punishment is implacable. Lea Garofalo, daughter of a capo executed when she was a baby, more victim than accomplice, ended up tortured and dead by her own husband, Carlos Cosco, a leader of the 'Ndrangheta. She had handed him over to justice, exhausted from bloodshed. The testimony of the foot soldiers is strategic because it breaks the code of honor and allows one to climb to the terzo livello, the institutional lair where the mafia makes deals with politicians, elite businessmen, and corrupt officials.The Aldama case is emblematic because it neither leads to prison – which greatly frightens economic criminals, as it mixes them with the "scum" of common crime– nor does it empty one's pockets, as they have not had to return a single cent of their illegal gains. And they will not suffer social ostracism, because, in reality, they have not broken any loyalty. Earning (or paying) illegal commissions is frowned upon by a large part of the business sector in Spain, when you are discovered. Not out of ethics, but out of incompetence. They will not shun him because the understanding with the politicians involved is not that of a mafia clan, based on blood ties and eternal loyalty, but an opportunistic link, a kind of temporary joint venture with the highest bidder. With examples like this, it should not surprise us that almost 50% of Spaniards believe that the only way to succeed in business is through political connections. "He who has no godparents, is not baptized".Even when convicted, economic criminals like Aldama (still awaiting trial for a massive fraud) maintain a comfortable cushion to raise bail or provide financial support. Penal enforcement judges tend to be sensitive to these claims, because white-collar criminals are not considered antisocial individuals, but functional ones. A message as harmful as the one sent when someone like Daniel de Alfonso – a conspirator with the minister in Operation Catalonia and convicted by the Court of Auditors for profiteering – is allowed to serve as a prison surveillance judge as if nothing happened, deciding who deserves a third degree or a prison leave.Amidst the conceptual confusion, far from innocent, Roberto Saviano's latest book, Grita, is appreciated. It portrays women and men who, throughout history, have spared no risk in the fight for truth: Hypatia, Giordano Bruno, Robert Capa, Daphne Caruana… A caloric, yet palatable and healthy, review of the history of civil courage.