The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) under the presidency of Luis Rubiales – meanwhile temporarily suspended by FIFA – managed to bypass the defendant bank as a legal entity in the so-called “Haiti case” claims that the crime of grant fraud is mandatory. This emerges from the accounts of the Federation itself, to which EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA of the Prensa Ibérica group had access.
The case fell on them Criminal Court No. 30 of Madrid, whose owner is Hortensia de Oro-Pulido, who must decide whether to accept the proposal of the federation under the presidency of Rubiales.
“The RFEF claims that the measures are time-barred The lawsuit was settled on November 30, 2011 and the complaint underlying the proceedings was filed on December 30, 2016“, explains the body that regulates the fortunes of Spanish football, in an appeal, which says that he cannot be prosecuted for subsidy fraud because “more than five years” have passed, the period in which the offense was committed would probably have expired.
returned the money
However, the association recognized that public aid was not for the purpose for which it was granted. In this sense, in its official statement of accounts, the RFEF explains that after the indictment, as a legal entity, it launched an internal investigation that made it possible to recover the unimplemented subsidies “before the start of the legal proceedings”: “This reimbursement for a total of 1,560 .931 euros included the principal plus accrued interest,” Rubiales’ accounts continue defend that this “regulation entails reparation of harm and therefore constitutes an exemption from criminal prosecution”.“.
The so-called “Haiti case,” the only one for which the RFEF is prosecuted as a legal entity, began after the president of the National Training Center for Coaches (Cenafe) filed a complaint. Miguel Ángel Galán Castellanos, against the Federation, against its then President, Angel Maria Villarand other managers. Specifically, the offenses of embezzlement, misappropriation and misappropriation of public funds were charged in connection with a grant of 219,500 euros, the purpose of which was to create a Football school in Haiti.
The investigation conducted by the Head of the Investigative Court No. 4 of Majadahonda (Madrid) confirmed this These funds did not flow to the Caribbean country. In addition, the lecturer extended her investigations to four different funding programs for a further 1,222,500 euros, which also benefited the RFEF.
Three accused
In addition to the federation, the Majadahonda judge agreed to prosecute the organization’s former secretary-general Jorge Perez arias; to the former administrator Jose Maria Castillon Casasnovas; and former director of the RFEF Foundation Isabel Navas Portillo. He accused them of “failing to implement the project for which the subsidy was granted and not to conform to the conditions to which the subsidy was attached,” according to a decision dated November 28, 2022, accessed by this newsroom had.
On the contrary, the judge closed the indictment against Villar and against the Federation for the other crimes they were charged with. The public prosecutor has already demanded that the RFEF be ordered to pay 700,000 eurosaccording to the Iuport website.
