The trial for the bankruptcy of the Aldea cooperative begins with agreements 14 years later

TarragonaThis Tuesday, the bankruptcy of the cooperative of l'Aldea, in Baix Ebre, began to be judged at the Audiència de Tarragona. Fourteen years ago, this bankruptcy caused 408 creditors to lose their savings, with disastrous consequences for the entire town. Although the cooperative's accounts apparently functioned correctly – in fact, they passed an audit by the Generalitat a year before the bankruptcy–, the creditors discovered on December 1, 2011, that there was a deficit of 6.97 million euros, 4.6 million of which were their savings. During the trial, which will last two months, 293 people were summoned as witnesses, although fewer will end up testifying, as during the preliminary hearings, held this morning, compensation agreements have already been reached.

The main defendant is the cooperative's former manager Daniel Ferré, for whom the Public Prosecutor's Office is requesting 14 years in prison for alleged continuous crimes of accounting fraud, fraud in a commercial document, punishable insolvency, and disloyal administration. Furthermore, he is also being asked for civil liability of over 1.6 million euros. The Public Prosecutor's Office considers that Ferré used different accounting strategies to hide the economic difficulties the entity was suffering due to his mismanagement, with fictitious invoices and overvaluation of fixed assets.

Another of the main defendants was the head of the auditing firm BDO, Juan Carlos Torres, who allegedly committed a crime of accounting fraud and another of disloyal administration, by inflating the valuation of the assets owned by the cooperative and thus making Ferré's presented accounts credible. For him, the Public Prosecutor's Office was requesting seven years and three months in prison, but he will finally not be tried because, as reported by ACN, this morning he reached an agreement with the affected parties that, together with the insurance company Mapfre, BDO will pay 880,000 euros in exchange for the charges being dropped. The association that brings together those affected by the entity's bankruptcy has also agreed to drop the charges against the former director of the credit section, Enric Sabaté, who has also deposited 12,500 euros to facilitate his exclusion.

Once the agreement was closed, the lawyer for the affected parties' platform, Alberto Venegas, announced the withdrawal of the affected parties as private accusers: "This party withdraws from the proceedings. We are not exclusively entrusted with criminal action, and civil action has been completely exhausted with respect to the plaintiffs, as the affected parties have recovered 100% of the amounts," he argued. The prosecutor in the case, Xavier Jou, adhered to the announcement made by the private accusers once the defendants had committed to making the agreed compensations effective.

On April 24, CaixaBank had already reached an agreement to compensate the affected parties with 3 million euros for the cooperative's bankruptcy. In exchange for this money, the private accusers and the Public Prosecutor's Office agreed to drop the charges against Antonio Fornós, former director of the Amposta branch, and Manuela Buera, deputy director, as well as against Bankia as a legal entity. Bankia (formerly Caja Madrid) was absorbed by CaixaBank.

Bankia's role

The Prosecutor's Office maintains that the former manager and main accused in the case, Daniel Ferré, requested a loan from Bankia for 1.5 million euros in 2006 and presented the entity's financial assets as collateral. Two years later, and according to former Bankia directors, he requested another loan for 1.64 million euros and used the financial assets of the credit section as a guarantee. But the cooperative, which unknowingly backed these operations, did not receive this money.

In parallel, Bankia also offered banking services to the credit section. The cooperative had two current accounts where receipts were charged, and subsequently, charged to the accounts of each member. The accused employees allegedly unilaterally linked the members' accounts with others opened in their name at the same Bankia. When the bankruptcy occurred, Bankia not only blocked the cooperative's accounts but also those opened directly with the entity and illegally linked to the credit section.