Judge Pepa Tarodo has closed the investigation into the 'Azud case' and has placed 38 people one step away from the dock for an extensive network of alleged corruption related to public tenders and urban planning operations in València and other municipalities of the Valencian Community. Among those investigated are four relatives of the late Rita Barberá and several of the main political leaders of the City Council during her years as mayor.
The head of seat 13 of the Instruction Section of the Court of First Instance of València has issued a 314-page abbreviated procedure order. This decision opens the phase prior to an eventual trial and means that the magistrate finds sufficient evidence for the accusations to specify the crimes and the penalties they will demand.
The list includes José María Corbín, Barberá's brother-in-law, and his three daughters, nieces of the former mayor. Also prosecuted are Alfonso Grau, deputy mayor and strongman of the PP municipal government; two of his daughters and his sons-in-law; the former Councilor for Urban Planning Jorge Bellver; businessman Jaime Febrer; the former socialist spokesperson Rafael Rubio; the lawyer linked to the PSPV José Luis Vera; municipal officials and numerous businessmen.
The investigation covers contracts and decisions adopted between 1999 and 2013, although the main core is located during the last decade of Barberá's mandate, who governed València between 1991 and 2015. The case began in 2016 after the Tax Agency transferred information to the Prosecutor's Office about the high income of Corbín's office and its difficult correspondence with the declared professional activity.
The "personal protection" of the Mayor's Office
The resolution places Corbín, Grau, and Febrer at the center of a "true association with criminal purposes". The judge maintains that the three participated in real estate operations related to the City Council and the public company Actuaciones Urbanas Municipales (Aumsa), within a system that allowed them to "rig the awards of work or contracts with total freedom".
Grau exercised, according to the magistrate, "total control" over the City Council. Corbín could access councilors, officials, and municipal departments thanks to his kinship with the mayor and his wife, María Asunción Barberá's, position as head of the Mayor's Office cabinet. The judge considers that this "personal protection" turned the lawyer into an intermediary capable of securing contracts for certain companies in exchange for commissions.
The order estimates that Corbín received 3,609,696 euros in alleged kickbacks from contracting companies. Payments were channeled through his office or through shell companies and were covered by consulting contracts that the investigation considers fictitious. Between 2005 and 2017, Corbín Abogados declared revenues exceeding five million euros, despite having three or four employees and expenses of 681,784 euros.
The evolution of the business also caught the attention of investigators. In 2007, the firm declared a turnover of 1.2 million. In 2015, the year Barberá lost the Mayor's Office, it fell to just over 40,000 euros. Close to 80% of its income would have come from commissions linked to six business groups benefited by public decisions or contracts, according to the resolution.
Part of that money would have ended up in the family assets. The judge records the cash payment of 172,000 euros to renovate Corbín's villa in Xàbia, a residence where Barberá also spent her summers. She also places within a possible money laundering operation the 360,000 euros that the lawyer attributed to winning Christmas Lottery tickets.
Two of his daughters subsequently received donations of 150,000 euros to buy their homes and a third daughter's house would have been acquired with funds from the investigated commissions. The magistrate specifies that the three daughters did not participate in the activities attributed to their father, although she maintains that they benefited economically from them.
The order also mentions gifts given to Rita Barberá between 2001 and 2007 for a total value of 7,651 euros. The list includes Louis Vuitton handbags and items, Christmas hampers, a suitcase, and a bottle of Pingus wine valued at 1,520 euros. The judge considers that these gifts far exceeded any customary courtesy.
Barberá passed away in 2016 and cannot be held criminally liable in this case. The resolution, however, examines the functioning of the City Council she led and states that her position would have facilitated her brother-in-law's activity. In one of its passages, it maintains that the former mayor "promoted" payments to Corbín's office linked to certain public contracts.
Alfonso Grau is linked to at least eight allegedly corrupt operations. The investigating judge attributes around two million euros in commissions to him and an increase in illicit assets valued at 802,924 euros. Part of the money would have been hidden through cash deposits, early loan amortizations, real estate acquisitions, and accounts managed by relatives.
The plot also reached the PSPV
The 'Azud case' originated around the PP municipal government, although the investigation has also found ramifications in the socialist opposition of those years. The judge indicts the former spokesperson for the PSPV in the City Council and former government sub-delegate Rafael Rubio, his wife, and the lawyer José Luis Vera.
Rubio would have received gifts from businessman Jaime Febrer since 2002 and, according to the order, ended up reaching a pact with the plot after publicly denouncing an urban planning operation. The magistrate maintains that the agreement sought to reduce his oversight work. In the accounts shared with his wife, 197,256 euros were detected, distributed in 77 cash deposits, generally below the limits that could trigger bank controls.
José Luis Vera is attributed the role of intermediary with administrations governed by the PSPV and with the public company Acuamed. Febrer's companies paid him more than one million euros, according to the investigation. The resolution also includes the payment of 484,480 euros in PSPV electoral expenses during the 2007 and 2008 campaigns through an interposed company. Part of that branch was dismissed due to prescription and because the specific crime of illegal party financing was not yet in force.
The investigated operations include the municipal sanitation contract, the awarding of public plots, Aumsa's subsidized housing promotions, the so-called 'Colegios case' and urban plans in Xixona, Burjassot, Benicàssim and La Vila Joiosa. A report by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard estimated the commissions investigated at more than 7.1 million euros in the entire case.
Compromís has called for a "resounding condemnation" for those responsible and for public money to be recovered. The PSPV has demanded the withdrawal of the honors granted to Barberá, including her name on the Puente de las Flores, considering that the resolution portrays the functioning of her municipal government.
The Prosecutor's Office and the rest of the accusations now have ten days to request the opening of the oral trial and present their briefs, request dismissal or demand complementary proceedings. The 38 investigated maintain the presumption of innocence and can appeal the order by reform in three days or appeal in five.
Add ElConstitucional.es as a preferred Google source for free.
Stay informed about all the latest breaking news with the best information. Against disinformation, for democracy and social rights.
