Friday, March 29

Two commissioners accused of health contracts bought luxury cars and a yacht


louis medina. / Jose Ramon Ladra

Alberto Luceño, accused together with the son of the Duke of Feria of taking nearly 5.5 million by awards from the Madrid City Council, allegedly laundered three million in nine high-end vehicles, watches, leisure and an apartment in Pozuelo

Matthew Balin

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has filed a complaint with the Madrid investigating courts against businessmen Luis Medina and Abascal, son of the late Duke of Feria, and Alberto Luceño for charging millionaire commissions by “inflating” the price of the purchase of sanitary material for the pandemic. An item that cost the Madrid City Council 10.8 million euros after signing three contracts with the publicly owned Funeral and Cemetery Services Company.

The complaint has been filed for the alleged commission of crimes of aggravated fraud, falsehood in a commercial document and money laundering. Medina would have benefited from a commission of about one million euros, money with which he would have acquired, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, an Eagle 44 model yacht, called ‘Feria’ and for which he paid 325,515 euros. Meanwhile, his partner allegedly raised the bribes to 4.6 million, of which three were allegedly laundered with the acquisition of nine high-end vehicles, Rolex watches, vacation leisure and a luxury home in Pozuelo de Alarcón, the city of Madrid. with higher income per inhabitant.

The writing has its origin in the investigation proceedings initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office on November 19, 2020. The story begins in March of that year, after the declaration of the State of Alarm by the Government, when the Madrid City Council signed an agreement with the Madrid Funeral and Cemetery Services Company, whereby the company undertook to guarantee the supply of health and safety material for municipal personnel.

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Around that date, Luceño and Medina, “acting in common agreement and with the aim of obtaining an exaggerated and unjustified economic benefit”, offered the town hall the possibility of acquiring large consignments of medical supplies manufactured in China. Medina was the person who contacted the council, taking advantage of his status as a public figure and “his friendship with a relative of the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.” This person provided him with the name of the General Coordinator of Budgets and Human Resources of the Treasury and Personnel Government Area of ​​the consistory, Elena Collado Martínez, as the person to whom he should contact to specify the terms of the operations.

According to the complaint, Collado Martínez was also a director of the Madrid Funeral and Cemetery Services Company. From this moment, the negotiations were carried out between this person and Alberto Luceño, who presented himself as an “expert in importing products from the Asian market, with factories in China at his disposal, and as the exclusive agent of the Malaysian company EEE, through which the importation was to take place.

Likewise, he assured that he acted motivated by the desire to collaborate in the fight against the pandemic. But in reality, “neither did he have significant experience in import business nor did he have factories in China, in the same way that he was not the exclusive agent of any Malaysian company nor did he act moved by any altruistic intention”, underlines the letter of the Prosecutor’s Office to demonstrate his cheated.

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A dollar for each mask

In accordance with these efforts, three contracts were signed between the Funeral Services and Cemeteries Company of Madrid -as buyer- and the Malaysian company EEE -as seller to acquire medical supplies-. As detailed in the complaint, the transfers received by the son of Naty Abascal correspond to the commission agreed between the Asian company and him of one dollar for each mask (one million dollars in total: 915,000 euros).

“From this it is inferred that the real selling price of the masks was 2,689,300 dollars -2,460,647.16 euros- and that the defendants artificially inflated it to take as a net profit, only with the masks, 4,000,000 dollars. ; that is, 148% of the real price of the product », collects the letter.

In the case of nitrile gloves, Luceño had assured the city council that they were “gloves 40 mm long, of great quality and that covered most of the arm.” However, the gloves received on April 8, 2020 were of “poor quality and only reached up to the wrist”.

Also in this case, an equal commission had been agreed for both defendants, for which they would obtain 4 million dollars (426% of the real price of the product), and which the defendants waived to “try to please the Madrid City Council”, seen the failure of the operation and in the face of complaints about the poor quality of the gloves.

Along the same lines, commissions of some two million dollars were agreed for the purchase of rapid tests, but “most of the tests received by the Madrid City Council were defective.”

Of the 250,000 tests received, only 75,000 had an acceptable level of sensitivity (94%); 115,000 had a sensitivity level of 80%, and a batch of 60,000 tests had an especially low sensitivity level of 66%.

Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche

The complaint indicates that the operations cost the Madrid City Council some 10.8 million euros, of which 4.6 million went to Luceño through transfers sent from Malaysia to a personal account. With this money, the businessman paid for a stay in a hotel in Marbella at a cost of 60,000 euros and three Rolex watches at a cost of 6,550 euros, 26,000 euros and 9,900 euros.

Similarly, the money was used to purchase an Aston Martin DB11 (160,000.00 euros); a Ferrari 812 Superfast (355,000 euros), a Mercedes AMG GT 63S (149,999.01 euros); another Mercedes SCL 300 (54,500 euros); a Range Rover Sport (102,000 euros); a KTM X BOW (91,800 euros); and a BMW I8 Roadster (121,000 euros)

With the exception of the Aston Martin, “these vehicles were billed to the company of which Alberto Luceño is the director and sole shareholder. He also paid for a house in Pozuelo de Alarcón with three parking spaces and a storage room for more than one million euros. And he spent another million euros on the purchase of more high-end vehicles such as a Lamborghini Huracán Evo Spider and a Porsche Panamera.


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