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Article chosen: Improving Gürtel Case

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: I have copied and pasted the original article (in bald) and will work on improving it. Everything else is my work

-This is the longest and most controversial corruption case in Spanish democratic history. Every section in the user page lacks considerable information. So far I plan to provide insightful information on the section about media coverage (see first link) and the Gurtel scandal in Valencia (second link). Moreover, there is no information about the companies that were directly involved with the Popular Party and a comprehensive and structured sequence of events chronological (main) events, which I think would help understand how it has all evolved.

There is no background information of the case and its origin. There is a very brief overview of the issue, but it goes straight into the judicial process without any detail or guide. (very superficial, no depth).

I plan on also adding information of how the case has evolved up to date, including an emphasis in certain communities such as Madrid and Valencia where most of the illegal activities took place. I will also provide information regarding where it currently stands (as of 2018).

Gürtel case

The Gürtel case is an ongoing political corruption scandal in Spain, which implicates officers of the People's Party (PP), Spain's major right-wing party, some of whom have been forced to resign or have been suspended. Gürtel is one of the largest corruption scandals in recent Spanish history, and there are related scandals, such as the Barcenas case, which have received media attention in their own right. The case came to public attention in early 2009, but for the most part the suspects were not put on trial until October 2016. Although it only came to public attention then, the first corrupt plot actually took place in 1993 (according to the People's Party accounting). It was a payment assigned to Francisco Correa Sanchez for the mere value of 150 euros.

The investigative operation was given the name Gürtel in a cryptic reference to one of the principal suspects, Francisco Correa (es) (Correa means belt in Spanish, Gürtel in German). Correa is a businessman who cultivated links with PP officers. On November 7th, 2007 a former councillor of the PP, José Luis Peñas triggered what would become, and still is one of the most controversial corruption cases in Spanish democratic history. Accompanied by lawyer Ángel Galindo, he presented an 18 hour long tape recording to the UDEF (Unit of Economic and Fiscal Delinquency), mainly incriminating Francisco Correa (Spanish businessman) by exposing corrupt conversations he and political allies had engaged in . The Spanish police began to investigate his activities in 2007 after information was obtained from a whistle-blower, Ana Garrido Ramos, regarding alleged corruption in the Madrid area.

The accusations include bribery, money laundering and tax evasion. They implicate a circle of businessmen led by Correa and politicians from the People's Party, although some of the evidence refers to participants by initials and nicknames such as "Luis el Cabron". The alleged illicit activities relate to party funding and the awarding of contracts by local/regional governments in Valencia, the Community of Madrid, Castilla and León, Galicia and the central government.

While estimations and actual numbers may certainly be very high, according to an article released by 'El País' in 2010, the amount circulated around 43.2 million euros, from which Francisco Correa was thought to receive about 38.5 million (almost 90% of all earnings). Later estimates of the money loss to public finances amounted to at least €120,000,000, while some of the alleged bribes paid in return were not particularly large (for example, items of luxury clothing)(4-original article). Initially, the illegal funds were allegedly used for small rewards, such as personal plane tickets, vinyls, wine. However, the operation leaders soon turned to the Spanish property bubble, as they saw an emerging opportunity to increase their earnings, mainly through the establishment of illegal contracts with influential town halls or city councils (such as Majadahonda and Pozuelo de Alarcón).

Due to its magnitude, judicial investigations regarding the Gürtel case have been divided into two different sections. The first, going from 1999 until 2005 has left a total of 43 people invicted. The second, taking place from 2005 to 2009, has so far (still going on in 2018) invicted around fifty more individuals, and seven different investigations have been officially opened in the community of Valencia alone.

Main Actors Involved (added section)

Presumed leaders: Francisco Correa, Alvaro Perez and Pablo Crespo

• Francisco Correa: Born in Casablanca in 1955, he is a Spanish businessman who owned many enterprises closely linked to the Spanish Popular Party (PP), as for instance 'Special Events' (see below). He started working for Spain's right wing political party in 1990s, as a simple train ticket provider (. He easily developed influential relationships that allowed him to escalate through the ranks of the Political Party. He was arrested on February 6th 2009, but would later be released in 2012 after paying a bail which amounted to 200,000 euros.

• Pablo Crespo: Former secretary of organizational events in Galicia. He was president of 'Special Events' and an administrator for 'Pasadera Viajes S.L.', two companies that were closely involved in the scandal (see section below). He was also one of the first people arrested in February 2009.
• Álvaro Perez: Also known as 'El Bigotes', he is widely recognized as Correa's right hand and is one of the key influential figures in the events that took place in Valencia. His opportunity arose in 2004, when Francisco Camps (president of the community of Valencia), put him in charge of organizing political events in Valencia. With Correa's help they created Orange Market (see section below).

Valencia: Francisco Camps and Ricardo Costa

• Francisco Camps: Became the president of the 'Generalitat Valenciana' from 2003 to 2011.
• Ricardo Costa: Regional deputy and former secretary of Spain's Popular Party headquarters in Valencia.

Madrid:

Esperanza Aguirre: Politician for Spain's popular party. She is the former president of Madrid, a position that she held from 2003 until 2012.

• Members of Esperanza Aguirre's government: especially Alberto Lopez Viejo, former councillor in Madrid's town's council.
• A variety of town halls including: Majadahonda, led by Guillermo Ortega; Pozuelo de Alarcón, led by Jesus Sepúlveda; Arganda del Rey and Boadilla del Monte

Others:

• José Luis Peñas: He was the first one to bring the Gurtel Case to public attention. As a young councillor for the Popular Party in the Majadahonda city hall, he developed a rather unfriendly relationship with Francisco Correa over the years. As a result, he spend time trying to reach Correa's inner circle (including his wife), which allowed him to record conversations that were uncovered on November 7th, 2007

• Baltasar Garzón: He was the judge initially in charge of the Gürtel case. He arrested some key players, such as Francisco Correa and Pablo Crespo which caused him a lot of pressure coming directly from the Popular Party, as they were under attack. However, in 2012, he was accused of fiscal fraud for recording illegal conversations between primary suspects, violating their intimacy. He did so by recording conversations between prisoners and council, which is deemed illegal in Spain. As a result, he was removed from the case and unauthorised to practice law for 11 years.

• Luis Barcenas: Former Popular Party treasurer and senator. He was a key player in the corruption scandal regarding the 'Barcenas papers' (see section below), as he used unofficial parallel accounting to hide illegally obtained and distributed funds.

Chronology of Main Events (added section)

2007

Start of investigation

2009

February:

• First arrests take place. Noticeably, the arrest of Francisco Correa and Pablo Crespo (former PP member)

• Number of people accused increases to 37.

• Francisco Correa and Pablo Crespo are sent to prison on February 12th.

March:

• Another six members of the People's Party (PP) are accused. Amongst them are important PP members, such as Francisco Camps (president of Valencia) and Ricardo Costa, his secretary.
• The mayors of two municipalities (Ginés López and Jesús Sepúlveda) and a general director (Tomás Martín Morales) resign given recent events
• Mariano Rajoy (president of Spain) publicly defends his political party by assuring that Francisco Camps has never given any funds to finance People's Party public projects.
• Number of people implicated in the scandal elevates to 55 by March 29th.

April:

• The Spanish anti-corruption prosecution asks the tribunals to make the president of Valencia, Francisco Correa, declare in court.

May:

• Alberto López Viejo (working as a counsellor in Madrid) is fined 750'000 euros for fiscal fraud and money laundering.
• Supreme court of justice sets date (may 19th) for Francisco Camps to declare in front of judge. He showed up and denied undertaking any type of illegal activity.

June:

• Madrid's Justice Court grants Gürtel case to the Supreme Court and emphasizes the need to have Luis Barcenas declare in front of a judge.

July:

• Luis Bárcenas appears in court on July 22nd for nearly three hours. On his way out he was sure to indicate how satisfied he was, as he had finally been given a chance to prove his innocence.
• On July 28th, senator and People's Party national treasurer, Luis Bárcenas officially resigns.

September:

• Madrid's Justice court presents reasons for denying Francisco Correa the right to provisonal freedom, as they feared he would attempt to make a political escape to Latin America, where he had been making arrangements to obtain legal residency.
• Money laundering police department releases report indicating how the Gürtel scandal was illegally financing the People's Party in Valencia, under the leadership of Francisco Camps.

October:

• Spain's president Mariano Rajoy affirms that he completely trusts Francisco Camps on national television

2010

April:

• On April 5th, supreme court requests amount needed for bail to be more than 200 million dollars for Francisco Correa and other individuals directly implicated in the case.
• Notion that Baltasar Garzón violated privacy rules by recording unathourized conversations is passed onto the supreme court.

May:

• Francisco Camps accused of accepting several suits given as gifts. Camps assures no illegal activities were undertaken in Valencia and denies awareness of corrupt activities by the People's party.
• Police reveals evidence and denounces Luis Bárcenas for receiving a total of up to 1.3 million euros

Noviembre:

• Supreme court rejects evidence presented by former judge Baltasar Garzón in an attempt to justify his illegal recording of private conversations. They deem the evidence as insufficient and lacking importance.
• A report from UDEF (Central Unit of Economic and Fiscal Delinquency) emerges, stating how Francisco Correa had design a strategy from prison, with the intent of influencing the judicial process.

2011

February:

• Francisco Correa is taken to the hospital where he receives medical attention following a possible heart failure. However, he is released just a few hours later and taken back to prison

Julio:

• The Supreme Court of the community of Valencia sends Francisco camps, Victor Campos (ex-president of Valencia) and Ricardo Costa to trial. They are accused of accepting private gifts directly related to the Gürtel case.

• On July 20th, Francisco Camps resigned as president of the 'Generalitat Valenciana' due to the accusations regarding the acceptance of suits but emphasises his innocence

September

• Accusations against Luis Bárcenas are temporarily dropped due to a lack of evidence.

December

• Francisco Camps appears in court and declares himself to be innocent.
• A worker from 'Forever Young', place where the suits allegedly came from, agrees to testify and indicates how the enterprise 'Orange Market' (see section below), ordered workers there to alter receipts, in order to hide the acquisition of certain products. Evidence continues to amount

2012

February:

• On April 22nd, Pablo Crespo, Correa's right hand and main adviser is released from prison after paying 1.2 million euros for bail. His passport is taken away.

• Judge reduces Francisco Correa's required bail from one million to 600'000 euros. Correa had previously asked to bring the amount required down to 50'000 euros.

June:

• The presumed leader of the operation, Francisco Correa is released from jail after his lawyer paid 200'000 euros as bail. He had been there for the past three and a half year, since his arrest in 2009.

2013

January:

• The judge, Pablo Ruz, reveals he had obtained information from Switzerland indicating that Luis Bárcenas had kept an account with 22 million euros, which he tried transferring elsewhere once the scandal about the Gürtel case was unveiled in 2009.
• Spanish newspaper, 'El Pais' reveals information about the existence of an unofficial parallel account (Bárcenas Papers scandal) used by the People's Party to finance public projects and support election campaigns.

July:

• Information related to the Barcenas papers reveals how the now current president of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, amongst other People's Party politicians had received extra/illegal money during his time serving as a minister of former president José María Aznar.
• Bárcenas is sent to jail in order to prevent him from leaving the country as he is deeply investigated. After he opts not to pay over 43 million euros in bail, his bank accounts are frozen by the authorities.

2014

January:

• Close to 150'000 euros from illegal funds obtained through the Gürtel scandal were used to arrange flights and holidays for a number of powerful members of the People's Party. Locations included luxurious hotels in places such as Puerto Rico, Miami and Paris according to the UDEF

2015

January:

• Anti-corruption fiscal party requests 42 and a half years of imprisonment for the former senator and treasurer of the People's Party, Luis Bárcenas. They also request 109 years of imprisonment for Francisco Correa.

2017

• President of Spain, Mariano Rajoy appears declaring in front of the judge as a witness. He states his innocence and also points out how he had never been close or knew much about Francisco Correa

Current situation: the scandal remains largely unsolved nowadays. The total number of people that have been accused has amounted to over 200 individuals and the case reports now go over one thousand pages in total

Companies Involved in Scandal (added)

Special Events

Special Events is an agency that manages events. From 1996 to 1999, it managed and organized a number of flights for high ranked officials of the People's Party in Galicia. It has been closely linked to the Gürtel corruption scandal. For instance, Pablo Crespo, then secretary of the PP, exercised as president of the agency. Moreover, he was also the sole administrator of Pasadena Viajes S.L. (see below), another company involved in the scandal. Evidence shows that Madrid's town hall signed a variety of contracts from 2004 to 2007 for a value close to 350'000 euros.

Pasadena Viajes S.L.

Another company that organized many flights and covered travel expenses for high ranked officials from the People's Party. It is owned by Pablo Crespo, businessman who has been accused and severely linked to the Gürtel case. According to the mayor of Boadilla del Monte (one of the municipalities influenced by the Gürtel case), publicly stated that the People's Party had indeed used the company's services to provide flights and vacations for members of their party.

Orange Market

Enterprise in charge of providing services in the community of Valencia where it represents the People's Party. Before his arrest in 2009, it was directed Álvaro Pérez ('El Bigotes'), considered one of Francisco Correa's closest allies. It is alleged that most of the contracts signed regarding the suits controversy in Valencia (see section on Valencia) were signed by Orange Market

Judicial process[edit]

Francisco Camps and Ricardo Costa A judicial investigation was started by Baltasar Garzón, the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5, the court which investigates the most important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism, organised crime, and money laundering. Garzón had five suspects, including Correa, detained in February 2009.

Garzón was suspended as a judge in 2010 pending his own trial on a charge of exceeding his authority with regard to a case unrelated to Gürtel (his investigation into Francoist crimes against humanity). This particular suspension was eventually overturned, but it was still in force when, in 2011, Garzón was given another suspension, this time pending trial for having violated lawyer-client privilege in the Gürtel case. (He had recorded conversations between detained suspects and their lawyers) -

The case was reassigned to Judge Antonio Pedreira. In the summer of 2011 Pedreira set bail for Correa at €15,000,000, reportedly the second largest figure in Spanish legal history. Correa's legal team appealed, saying that the amount was not based on an objective assessment of their client's wealth, as Correa´s access to some accounts had been blocked and there was uncertainty about how much wealth he held abroad. Correa was released on bail in June 2012 by which time Pedreira, who was suffering from Parkinson's disease, had been replaced by the third judge to handle the case Pablo Ruz. Ruz reduced the sum required to 200,000 euros, a reduction reflecting not only the accused's perceived ability to pay, but also the length of time he had been held on remand, which was approaching the maximum possible under Spanish law.

The investigation took a long time for various reasons including the number of suspects and delays in receiving information from foreign banks. In 2014 Judge Ruz announced he was in a position to proceed against 45 suspects, after dividing the case into different "epochs", the first one relating to crimes allegedly committed in the period 1999-2005. However, Ruz had been taken off the case by the time the first part came to trial in 2016.

Gürtel in Valencia[edit]

Cases worth highlighting

Pope's visit (2006)

Pedro García Gimeno, general director of 'RadioTelevisio Valenciana', which back then was in charge of the broadcasting of television and radio in the community of Valencia, was a close friend and ally of Francisco Correa and Álvaro Pérez ("El Bigotes"). In 2006, when the Pope visited Valencia, more than 7 million euros were spent setting up televisions all over the city. However, as revealed by interviews and investigations which were carried out and documented, the actual price was around 3.5 million euros. Moreover, a police report from 2009, states how the costs were inflated and doubled, reaching up to 7.5 million dollars, from which Francisco Correa received up to 1.4 million euros, Pablo Crespo earned 640'000 euros, whilst Álvaro Pérez and Pedro García Gimeno earned half a million euros each

Suits Controversy

As pointed out by some of the main events shown on the timeline above, Francisco Camps and Pablo Crespo were accused of accepting suits amongst other gifts. These came from companies that were granted contracts by the PP in the community of Valencia. Although numbers from different sources vary slightly, it is believed that at least ten public administrations from the 'Generalitat Valenciana' signed 85 contracts for a total value of 13 million euros. Most of these contracts were signed with Orange Market, a service provider for the People's Party in Valencia.

According to facts, Francisco Camps (president), Victor Campos (ex-president) and Ricardo Costa were the main beneficiaries of these rewards. Camps received a total of eight suits, five jackets and six pants, whilst Campos obtained six suits and four jackets and Ricardo Costa received four suits and three jackets. Nonetheless on January 25th, 2012 Francisco Camps and Ricardo Costa were found not guilty, as five out of nine members of the jury did not find the evidence to be enough. Campos, on the other hand, pleaded guilty and agreed to pay for all the expenses he owed.

A case involving the Valencian branch of the alleged network went to court relatively quickly. It was known in the press as the "suitgate" affair, as it involved allegations regarding suits supposedly given to prominent Valencian politician Francisco Camps. After a partial dismissal in 2009, the Supreme Court of Spain ordered it to be reopened. In 2011, Camps resigned as Valencian premier and leader of the Valencian Partido Popular in order to avoid standing trial while in office. Camps was found not guilty in 2012, and the verdict was upheld on appeal. However, the case was seen as having damaged Camps' career.

In January 2018, Mr. Costa, ex PPCV officer admitted that his party was financed with "dirty money". This admission became for the inquiry into "associations" of the provinces of Castellón, Valencia and Alicante.

Media coverage[edit] and Corruption Transparency in Spain

(Note for Mr. Balán : I thought it would be better to merge these two sections)

Caricature of El Bigotes (the mustache) Álvaro Pérez, one of those implicated in the case. Prior to 2013, reactions to Gürtel often divided on party political lines, with the more conservative media downplaying the significance of the allegations. Spain's highest-circulation daily newspaper, centre-left El País, which traditionally supports the PSOE, won a major press award (an Ortega y Gasset Award) in 2010 for investigative journalism relating to Gürtel. Público, a newspaper with a more left-wing stance than El País, also gave much coverage to the case.

In 2013 the picture became more complicated, as the Barcenas case started dividing the electorate of the Popular Party. While the conservative ABC kept toeing the party line, the centre-right El Mundo carried some of the major revelations about the case.

A study done by the CIS (Centre of Sociological Investigation or Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas in Spanish) analyzed the national coverage of corruption scandals in Spain from 1996 to 2009. The objective was to explain whether the two main Spanish newspaper selling sources, 'El Mundo' and 'El País, were unbiased when covering corruption scandals in Spain or if instead, they showed bias by following political ideologies. The former is Spain's centre-right newspaper while the latter (El País) supports the People's Party opposition, and is considered to be centre-left in terms of political orientation.

The findings revealed in the study support this argument. When releasing news regarding corruption in 2009 (year Gürtel case scandal emerged) 'El País' dedicated 66% of all its corruption news to issues directly covering the Gürtel case. On the other hand, 'El Mundo', known for supporting the People's Party, displayed a much more fragmented news agenda, only directing 41.7% of their news to the coverage of the Gürtel scandal. These results suggest that political influences could have altered media outcomes during the year the case was firstly uncovered.

Since 2013, corruption has become the second (only behind unemployment) most important problem in Spain, according to 40% of people surveyed on the matter.

According to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, Spain's corruption index from 2005 up until now shows an increasing trend in corruption perception, especially in recent years where Spain has fallen out of the top 40 least corrupt countries worldwide.

Corruption and transparency in Spain[edit]

It has been argued that the underlying problem is not a party political one, but rather a system which does not require transparency in the award of contracts. Spain occupied the 40th place in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index of 2013 (having dropped from 30th place). In 2016 Spain´s first anti-corruption commission began work.

Bárcenas papers[edit]

Main article: Bárcenas affair

January 2013 saw major revelations regarding the activities of Luis Bárcenas, the former treasurer of the Partido Popular. The Spanish justice system released information from the Swiss authorities regarding his financial dealings in Switzerland, and the press reported on alleged slush funds run for the benefit of the Partido Popular. The allegations of illegal party funding came initially from El Mundo, Spain's leading center-right newspaper which is normally close to the Partido Popular. It alleged that secret donations had been used for under-the-table payments ("backhanders") to party officials. Citing sources within the Partido Popular, the newspaper appeared to clear its current leadership, saying that the reported payments were made between 1989 and 2009. Demonstration in front of the People's Party headquarters protesting against the Barcenas' affair (2 February 2013). On January 31, El País published facsimiles of handwritten accounts, allegedly from Barcenas' hand and detailing slush funds, which report a total of 250,000 euros illegally paid to current prime minister Mariano Rajoy. The alleged funds came mostly from private building constructioncompanies, like FCC and OHL; this, if the allegations are confirmed, would raise additional questions on Spain's building boom. While the PP filed a defamation lawsuit against El País (which it subsequently dropped), it took no action against El Mundo. Attorney General Eduardo Torres-Dulce ordered the anti-corruption prosecutor to investigate any possible links between the alleged payments handed out to Popular Party (PP) officials and case filings in the Gürtel case. In 2014 El País commented that it is hard to draw a clear line between the two cases, Gürtel and Barcenas. However, the cases are being processed separately by the Spanish courts.

"Article Evaluation"

I chose to evaluate the article titled "Operation Car Wash" which became the biggest corruption scandal in Latin America.

The article seems to be written neutrally, as the terms and ideas used do not appear to be affected by biased opinions. It does not seem to contain any irrelevant/ out of place information, although more extensive research can be done regarding financial movements. Although the "investigation" section is fairly lengthy and informative, some other sections, such as the following one about the impact of the corruption scandal on Petrobas is lacking information and in my opinion severely underrepresented. Furthermore, in the last section, which talks about the overall impact on politics in Latin America, most segments (besides Brazil's and Peru's) barely consist of a sentence, which is insufficient and shows lack of data and/or research.

I agree with the comments in the talk section about how the summary should be the most informative section and needs substantial improvement, as first of all, the information lacks data, and the quality of it is relatively poor. This can be backed by the fact that the article received a rating of "Start class" which means it is in the lower-end of the spectrum in terms of quality and context. There seems to have been an improvement in terms of references and backing of evidence, as comments on the talk page complained about a severe lack of references, which no longer seems to be the case. However, not all links work and a considerable amount of them are in Brazilian / coming from Brazilian information sources which, although it can serve as way to gain broader and useful information, it is also likely to be affected by biased arguments and opinions.

In my opinion, given the magnitude and impact this issue had on Latin American politics, overall, the article is largely underrepresented. Many more sections could be added and important facts are often overlooked. Not much is said about the incredible scope and difficulty of the operation and most importantly, data about how it affected Brazil and other countries in the region is very limited given the amount of information that is available.