corruption

Judge sees evidence that party donations by senior officials came from black money from businesses seeking public works contracts

Laura Borràs accused of fraudulently selecting supplier for services worth €260,000

Cs MP says executive is surrounded by "putrefaction and corruption" and clashes with speaker over "sexist" comments

Country gets 58 points in index by Transparency International NGO, 17 below the average of "full democracies"

Son of ex-Catalan president arrives at prison to serve two and a half years for taking bribes and influence peddling

Joan Reñé arrested in relation to a kickbacks-for-contracts case involving CDC party

Parties confirm support to Socialists’ motion of no confidence against Spanish president

None of the eleven recommendations by the Human Rights body in 2013 have been fully completed

The international organization says measures recommended in 2013 not yet fully implemented and urges authorities to do so “as soon as possible”

Opposition parties force Mariano Rajoy to address Spanish Parliament a month after becoming the first serving president to testify in a criminal case

In first court appearance by a sitting Spanish president, the leader of the People's Party insists he had only “political responsibilities” and knew “absolutely” nothing about financial matters

Police officers request information for ongoing investigation into alleged irregular funding of CDC party

All the parties in the Catalan chamber except from governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ urged former Catalan President, Artur Mas, to appear before the Parliament over CDC irregular funding. He will have to do so after the main figures accused in the ‘Palau Case’ assured that former CDC, now renamed as the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT), received commissions from Ferrovial construction company in exchange for public contracts and with the intermediation of ‘Palau de la Música’. Indeed, Mas was head of CDC at the time when the alleged corruption took place. Pro-independence radical left CUP consider it “a fiction” to separate CDC from PDeCat and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) have called for Mas to quit his political career if the accusations over CDC irregular funding prove to be true.

After 8 years of investigation, the main names behind the so-called ‘Palau case’ will testify before the court this Wednesday. The judge accuses former governing party ‘Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya’ (CDC), which ruled in Catalonia in coalition with Christian Democrat Unió for more than 20 years, of illicitly receiving €5.1 million from the construction company Ferrovial through donations made to Barcelona’s Palau de la Música concert hall. The judge, Josep Maria Pijuan, believes the money was allegedly given in exchange for the allocation of public work contracts. Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull, the main managers of Palau de la Música at that time, have been the main focus of attention during the investigation, since there was evidence that they might have stolen €26 million from the cultural organisation for their personal benefit. CDC, now renamed as PDeCAT have repeatedly claimed that the accusations “have not been proven” and former Catalan President, Artur Mas, insisted he believed in the word given by the party former treasurer, Daniel Osàcar, who has been indicted by the judge.

Palma de Mallorca’s court sentenced Philip VI’s brother-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, for allegedly obtaining no-bid contracts from regional governments in the so-called ‘Nóos Case’. On the other hand, his wife, the sister of Spain’s King, Cristina de Borbón, has been acquitted of tax fraud complicity. However, she will have to pay a 265,000-euros fine for her role in the case. Former president of the Balearic Islands, Jaume Matas, who had held 50% of the shares of the company ‘Nóos’, has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison while Urdangarin’s partner in the company will have to face an 8-year prison sentence. The trial, which generated huge attention from the media, saw a member of the Royal Family brought to court for the first time ever.