Thursday, March 28

The five keys to the hit of Luis Medina and his friend


louis medina. / ABC

The agreement with the Madrid City Council included three contracts for masks, gloves and tests worth almost 16 million euros, but the commission agents, in addition to disproportionately inflating prices, did not meet the promised standards.

Melchor Saiz-Pardo

Luis Medina and his partner Alberto Luceño, as intermediaries for the Malaysian company Leno, closed three contracts in March 2020 with the Madrid funeral services manager. The first was for the purchase of one million masks for a price of 6,689,300 dollars; the second, for the delivery of 2.5 million nitrile gloves for five million dollars; and the third, for the purchase of 250,000 rapid covid-19 tests, at a cost to the City Council of 4,250,000 dollars.

Luceño, asserting his false position as manufacturer and agent of the Malaysian company, inflated prices disproportionately, even for the tense situation that the international market for medical supplies was experiencing those days. The very high commissions of the two partners came from that surcharge (60% in the masks, 81% in the gloves and 71% in the tests).

Only the masks met the standards for which the City Council had paid. The nitrile gloves were not 4 millimeters thick (great quality) and to cover a large part of the arm. Gloves of “poor quality” arrived, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, and that only covered up to the wrist. Those gloves, for which the Madrid City Council paid two euros a pair, were being sold in those days in supermarkets in the capital for eight cents. The deception was of such magnitude that the commissioners ended up returning to the council something more than 4 million dollars. Of the 250,000 tests to detect covid, only 75,000 had a moderately acceptable level of sensitivity.

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Video.

The first part of Alberto Luceño’s statement before the prosecutor.

Even despite the return of the four million euros for the gloves, Medina and Luceño pocketed 6.1 million in commissions. 5.1 went to Luceño and one million to the aristocrat. Luceño almost immediately spent 2.5 million to buy 15 supercars, as well as a house in Pozuelo and a multitude of watches. Naty Abascal’s son acquired a sailboat for more than 300,000 euros and 400,000 in bonds, which have disappeared.

Video.

The second part of Alberto Luceño’s statement before the prosecutor.

The initial Anticorruption complaint against both is for the alleged commission of the crimes of aggravated fraud, false documentation and money laundering. However, this list could get worse. Medina could also be accused of “execution frustration” (the old asset seizure) for having emptied his accounts by sending much of the money from the commissions to the Netherlands. In turn, his partner could also be accused of a tax offense for having declared the commissions through a company created ‘ad hoc’ and not as personal income tax, for which he would have had to pay more taxes.


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