Luis Bárcenas

Luis Bárcenas
Spanish Senator
for Cantabria
In office
14 March 2004 – 19 April 2010
Personal details
Born José Luis Bárcenas Gutíerrez
(1957-10-22) October 22, 1957
Huelva, Spain
Nationality Spanish
Political party Partido Popular
Spouse(s) Rosalía Iglesias Villar[1]
Profession Businessman

José Luis Bárcenas Gutiérrez (born October 22, 1957 in Huelva, Spain) is a Spanish politician in the Partido Popular (PP, People's Party). He served as party Treasurer 2008/9 and senator 2004/10, and has been embroiled in political corruption scandals linked to the former of those roles. As at October 2016 he on trial.

Career

Luis Bárcenas started working in the accounting department of the People's Party in 1990, and become the chief administrator of the party in 1993. In 2008, the president of the party, Mariano Rajoy, personally chose him as Treasurer to replace Alvaro Lapuerta. He pursued a parallel career as a politician, and in 2004 and 2008 was elected to represent Cantabria in the Senate.[2] His time as treasurer was short, as he "temporarily" resigned in 2009 when his implication in the Gürtel scandal became too much of a public embarrassment for the party. He was alleged to be the criminal known by the alias of "Luis el cabrón", and was accused of "tax fraud and of receiving illegal payments".[3] Bárcenas stood down from the Senate in 2010, and his resignation as treasurer was made definitive, but until early 2013 he retained access to an office at the PP headquarters and continued to receive payments from the party equivalent to his salary, under circumstances which are disputed.[4][5]

Demonstration against Bárcenas on 2 February 2013 outside the People's Party headquarters.

The controversy around him further flared up in January 2013, when investigations into the Gürtel case revealed that he held a Swiss bank account that had contained €22 million.[2] (It later emerged that he controlled significant further funds in that country).[6] Additionally, he admitted using the 2012 tax amnesty voted by the PP to legalize €10 million hidden through a Uruguayan company.[7][2]

The Bárcenas papers

Main article: Bárcenas affair

In 2013 Spain's two main dailies, El Mundo (center-right) and El País (center-left), alleged that the PP had used unofficial parallel accounting to hide slush money from illegal donations. Two former treasurers, Bárcenas and his predecessor Lapuerta, allegedly used these illegal donations in part "to make under-the-table payments to PP leaders".[8] The donations in question appeared to contravene party financing laws on two counts: first, for exceeding the 60,000-euro limit for any one individual or company; second, many alleged donors were involved in the construction sector and were simultaneously being awarded government contracts. However, there were indications that measures had been taken to keep donations within the letter of the law.[9]

El País published facsimiles of handwritten "secret ledgers" (purportedly in Bárcenas' hand) suggesting that Mariano Rajoy, the Prime Minister of Spain, María Dolores de Cospedal, the Secretary-General of the People's Party, and many other high ranking PP officials, received undeclared money.[2][10] Initially all implicated politicians, including Bárcenas, strongly denied any wrongdoing.[11] However, in July 2013, shortly after Bárcenas' imprisonment, El Mundo reported that Bárcenas accepted that there had been irregular funding of the People's Party.[12]

There has been speculation that the money Bárcenas kept in Switzerland was connected to party funding, but this has been denied by Bárcenas and the People's Party.[13][14] Bárcenas claims that the money came from his own business interests including art dealing, supposedly a cash rich activity.[15]

Imprisonment, release on bail and trial

Facing a range of charges including tax fraud and money-laundering, on June 27, 2013 Bárcenas was sent to prison pending trial.[16] The decision not to grant bail was taken by judge Pablo Ruz to "avoid the risk of flight and ensure the preservation of sources of evidence".[17][18]

Bárcenas was released on bail in January 2015. Judge Ruz had announced the previous summer that he was in a position to proceed against 45 Gurtel suspects, including Bárcenas. The trial, in respect of crimes allegedly committed in the period 1999-2005, began in October 2016.

See also

References

  1. ↑ , Vanity Fair
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Another Blow". The Economist. 9 February 2013.
  3. ↑ "Key Players: Spanish Ruling Party 'Slush Fund'". BBC. 6 February 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  4. ↑ Bárcenas demanda al PP por despido improcedente. El País. Retrieved 26/02/2013.
  5. ↑ Bárcenas controlled PP accounts until 2011, court papers show
  6. ↑ Luis Bárcenas: Spain People's Party's ex-treasurer in jail
  7. ↑ "Barcenas pide". Publico. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  8. ↑ "Spain's Ruling Party to Probe Swiss Bank Account Scandal". EFE. 18 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "Un constructor reconoce...", Publico
  10. ↑ "Spain Ruling Party Faces Inquiry Over 'Slush Fund'". BBC. 1 February 2013.
  11. ↑ "Spain: Rajoy Man Barcenas Arrives for Questioning". BBC. 6 February 2013.
  12. ↑ Burgen, Stephen (21 July 2013). "Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy keeps counsel as corruption allegations fly". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  13. ↑ "Judge gives banks deadline to hand over information about ex-PP treasurer". El País (English edition). April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  14. ↑ Jimenez, Miguel (3 February 2013). "Las claves de las notas de Bárcenas". El País (in Spanish).
  15. ↑ Perez, Fernando (April 2013). Bárcenas viajó 15 veces a Suiza para depositar un total de 2,43 millones, El País.
  16. ↑ Spain: Judge jails former ruling party treasurer." AP Online. Press Association, Inc. 2013. Retrieved 9 Jul. 2013 via HighBeam Research (subscription required).
  17. ↑ "Bárcenas, en la cárcel. Prisión incondicional sin fianza para el ex tesorero del PP". El Mundo. 27 June 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  18. ↑ "Auto del Juez de ingreso en prisión" (PDF). Juzgado de Instrucción. 27 June 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
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