Friday 4 February 2011

Spain's two largest corruption cases have property developer in common; properties in Sotogrande

SPAIN/Marbella/Sotogrande (Agencies) The two largest (so far) corruption cases in court have one single property developer in common. In both the Gürtel and Malaya cases the name of Emilio Rodríguez Bugallo appears as involved in several very questionable deals. Bugallo, who died while under investigation in the Malaya case, was the father in law of Francisco Correa (photo, at José María Aznar's daughter's wedding), who heads the Gürtel culprits list. He also surfaces as one of the principal beneficiaries of land and property deals carried out by Juan Antonio Roca, who heads a similar list in the Malaya case. The judge in charge of Gürtel, Antonio Pedreira, was recently given a list he had ordered from the Anti-corruption unit of the National Police, that says that properties owned by several if not all of those involved in the case include land, apartments, villas,  garages, boats, luxury vehicles  and such 'humble' items (as one paper put it) all over the country and abroad, accumulated over a decade of dodgy activity. The list includes properties in Marbella and Sotogrande, where developer Emilio Rodríguez Bugallo operated for years. The province of Cadiz alone registers 28 properties in various names and companies asociated with the Gürtel case, others are in Madrid (27), Malaga (16), the  Balearics, Valencia, Alicante, Pontevedra and Barcelona.

No comments: