Former Real Madrid president confesses to €25 million commission in Gürtel case

BarcelonaThe businessman Fernando Martín, former president of the Martinsa development company and of Real Madrid, admits to having paid a commission of 25 million euros to the Gürtel to secure a contract from the Madrid city council of Arganda del Rey more than two decades ago, when the PP governed the municipality. This is stated in a confession written to try to avoid prison. to which you have had access The Country and that Martín has handed over to the National Court, where the penultimate trial of the corrupt plot began this Monday.

Up to twenty-one people are sitting in the dock: apart from the leaders of the plot, Francisco Correa and Pablo Crespo –both in third grade after having served more than a decade in prison–, there are several officials and businessmen. Legal sources inform the Efe agency that a large majority, like Fernando Martín, have proposed to the Prosecutor's Office an agreement of conformity in which they acknowledge the facts in exchange for a reduction in the requested sentences.

The former president of Martinsa, for whom the Prosecutor's Office demanded 20 years in prison, acknowledges in the document how Correa contacted him between the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004 to "offer him intermediation with the political authorities of Arganda". "It was agreed that, in exchange for guaranteeing the award in favour of Martinsa, Francisco Correa would receive 25 million euros from Fernando Martín, 12 million of which would be paid when the City Council awarded the plots [...] and the rest as the execution progressed, with the understanding that the City Council would not put any obstacles in the way."

The builder adds that he was "aware" that part of the 25 million he paid for some plots "would be addressed" to the city council's urban planning officials, and Correa himself confirmed this in another confession letter also published by The Country. "Once the operation was closed, I felt obliged to share part of my profit with Ginés [López] and Benjamín [Martín]," he says in reference to the former mayor and former PP councillor in the council, both accused in the trial.

This would have been, according to the Prosecutor's Office, Correa's way of acting in the municipality from 1998 to 2009, during the legislatures in which the PP governed. In its provisional conclusions it cites, for example, cash and in-kind gifts worth 363,295 euros to Martín and worth 545,328 euros to López. All this in exchange for his "intermediation and favouring" of awards. The former mayor, according to The Country, also admits in a written statement having maneuvered in exchange for "cash deliveries and gifts" and asks for "forgiveness" for his collaboration with the plot.

The series of pre-trial confessions seek a reduction in the request for sentences. In the case of businessman Fernando Martín, for whom the defense requests that the mitigating circumstances of confession, undue delays and reparation of damages be applied, the agreement would provide that the sentence for several crimes would be three years and four months in prison. The builder should not be involved because none of the sentences separately exceeds two years.