The judge who has brought the JxCat deputy Francesc de Dalmases to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) for embezzlement, he calls his behavior “offensive” and wonders if he lives “purely and exclusively on public subsidies” obtained irregularly.
This is stated by the head of the court of instruction number 1 of Barcelona, Joaquín Aguirre, in the reasoned statement that he has sent to the TSJC to investigate if the deputy made a profit with 224,000 euros of public subsidies for cooperation granted by the Generalitat, the Provincial Council and the Barcelona City Council to entities related to the CDC.
The investigation against Dalmases derives from the cause for alleged diversion of public funds for the cooperation of the Barcelona Provincial Council, in which about 50 people are charged and which led to the police operation in which businessmen and members of the 1-O “staff” were arrested last October, accused of taking advantage of their political contacts to favor their businesses.
In addition to Dalmases, the judge proposes that the TSJC investigate six other persons responsible for Catmon and Igman, among them Víctor Terradellas, the former secretary of international relations of the CDC that revealed alleged support in Russia to the procés, in a conversation with members of the “general staff” who organized the 1-O intervened in the Volhov case.
Consultation of your working life
The instructor has referred the case to the TSJC, given the indications of crimes of embezzlement, prevarication and influence peddling and asks the high court to consult the work resume of the JxCat deputy, to which the judge has not been able to access given his gauge condition.
“Two people who live purely and exclusively on public subsidies with a notoriously high amount”
Specifically, the judge believes it is necessary to find out if Francesc de Dalmases is “in the same situation” as Víctor Terradellas, “two people who live purely and exclusively from public subsidies obtained in an allegedly irregular manner and with a notoriously high amount,” he says.
In his brief, the magistrate recalls that the 224,081 euros that Francesc de Dalmases allegedly received from funds for cooperation between 2014 and 2017 “they would be equivalent to more than 18 years of mileurista salary”, the most common among workers in Catalonia.
An “offensive” behavior
For this reason, his behavior seems to him “not only inappropriate and allegedly criminal, but even offensive to those who fulfilled their social obligations by contributing part of their salary to the public coffers in compliance with their fiscal duties “.
According to the judge, between 2014 and 2017 the Catmon and Igman foundations -related to the CDC- received more than one million euros in grants to carry out development cooperation projects and edit the magazines Catalan International View, whose purpose is “to make the Catalan nation known to the rest of the world”, and ONGC, where researchers have found articles copied from the internet.
Dalmases received a total of 139,826 euros “mainly for management tasks of the magazine Catalunya International View”, Through invoices that were used to justify public aid as expenses attributed to the subsidized projects, the judge maintains.
Duplicate and tripled invoices
For the instructor, there are indications from these mechanics that “the objective of obtaining these subsidies was last to nourish with public money to Catmon and Igman and by extension to the members of their direction“, including the deputy of JxCat.
In his brief, of almost 150 pages, the judge details the irregularities that he has detected in the files under suspicion: direct subsidies for projects that were repeated annually, with which “recurrent public participation was avoided”, or invoices presented in duplicate or triplicate to justify aid before different administrations.
The magistrate is in doubt as to whether “the subsidized projects were carried out, in whole or in part”, and points out that the majority of the justification of the subsidized projects “lacks objective sources of verification” and of final memory.
Most of the project justification “lacks objective sources of verification”
The judge specifies that in the process of granting the subsidies of the Generalitat supposedly irregular The then Minister of the Presidency Jordi Turull participated, as well as several of his collaborators, among which are charges prosecuted for the 1-O preparations such as the former Secretary of the Presidency Joaquim Nin or the Secretary General Meritxell Masó.
Also puts the magnifying glass on several grants awarded to Catmon and Igman by the Barcelona City Council in procedures in which, as detailed, intervened, among others, the then mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, and the head of the Presidency area Jordi Martí.
