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Hercules President Carlos Parodi enters the Alicante Provincial Court for the second and final session of the 'Abde case'. Shootori
The 'Abde Case' Awaits Verdict

The 'Abde Case' Awaits Verdict

The Public Prosecutor Maintains Prison Request for Hercules President Carlos Parodi and Foundation Trustees Valentín Botella and José León

Alejandro Hernández

Alicante

Miércoles, 15 de enero 2025, 16:35

The trial for the alleged aggravated asset concealment by Hercules to avoid the seizure of the two million euros received from the sale of Abde to FC Barcelona is now awaiting a verdict. The Public Prosecutor has maintained its request for three years of imprisonment for Hercules President Carlos Parodi and two and a half years for the Foundation's trustees, Valentín Botella and José León.

Furthermore, the Prosecutor's Office has requested the application of the mitigating factor for damage repair, as the debt has been settled. It has also requested the acquittal of all charges for Foundation trustee José Caruana, as it is believed he did not participate in the judged events.

The public accusation has confirmed the asset concealment because "the accused obtained the money while ignoring their obligations to the Treasury." To achieve this, Hercules transferred the two million euros from Abde's transfer to a Foundation bank account at Caja Rural Central, which had been open since 2008 but inactive since 2014. Additionally, once deposited, the money was divided into 34 nominal checks in favor of the club. Therefore, it was considered that the money did not belong to the foundation. In reality, "it never changed ownership," it was argued.

The Public Ministry also insisted that the two million euros were first deposited into the Foundation's account, and once the 34 checks were issued, they were deposited into a new account at the same entity in the club's name. A "concealment maneuver" to prevent the money from being seized, as the Sabadell account that Hercules usually operated with was the one subject to the Tax Agency's embargo.

If the statement of Hercules President Carlos Parodi was the highlight of the first day of the trial for the 'Abde case', the second and final session was marked by the public accusation's interrogation of Tax Inspector Tomás Segarra, who drafted the report on the club's actions and stated that they became aware of the Moroccan player's signing by FC Barcelona "through the press."

The Tax Agency official stated that they requested from Hercules a requirement for the account where the amount had been deposited. According to Segarra, the Treasury only knew of a Sabadell account and saw that the transaction amount had not been deposited there. The two million euros were in a Caja Rural Central account, opened on October 1, 2021, unknown to the AEAT.

The Treasury contacted the entity, which informed them that the check had been deposited into a Foundation account, opened in 2008 but inactive since 2014, as explained by Enrique Garrido Díaz, the branch manager where the money from Abde's transfer was deposited, who was summoned as a witness.

The Tax Agency requested the movements of that account, and the entity provided them. With the documents on the table, the Treasury noticed that 34 checks of 60,000 euros each - except one of 15,700 - had been issued. Following this, they asked Parodi about the checks, and he assured them that he had endorsed them to the Foundation for the obligations the club had contracted with the

Absence of Laura Ortiz, daughter of the majority shareholder

The lengthy oral hearing, which began at 10:20 a.m. and ended five hours later, was also marked by the absence of Laura Ortiz - daughter of the majority shareholder - who was summoned as a witness representing Segunfer Ejecuciones, the company that financed the defendants with the payment of 1.5 million euros for the Moroccan player's transfer to the Tax Agency. The witness's mother called the court to explain that her daughter would not attend her summons for "health reasons," as explained by the Magistrate.

On Tuesday, Parodi admitted to the judge that the check for Abde's signing was deposited by the Hercules Foundation and divided into 34 checks. From there, 300,000 euros were allocated to the Tax Agency, another 300,000 to Social Security, and 900,000 to the team's salaries. He also stated that if they had not paid the players, "they would have been relegated."

In response to these statements, the State Attorney's Office stated that there was no need to "commit a crime" to save Hercules. It believes that the payment of the debt a year later is proof that "they simply did not want to pay."

The president acknowledged that the threat of ending up in jail was what led the club, in September 2022, to pay the 1.5 million euros that finally settled the debt. The payment was made through the company Segunfer, represented by Laura Ortiz.

Carlos Parodi's defense lawyer, Ignacio Gally, insisted that the money paid belonged to the club, according to the framework agreement signed with the Hercules Foundation. He also highlighted that the intention to settle the debt with the Treasury was more than proven, "as evidenced by the nine attempts to reach an agreement and the reimbursement of 480,000 euros."

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