SGAE president stands down at first meeting of new board
Accused of embezzling copyright-managing agency's funds, Bautista opts to take back seat
Teddy Bautista, the embattled president of the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), Spain's main copyright-management body, announced at the first meeting of its new board on Tuesday afternoon that he would be resigning his post.
Bautista, a former musician and actor, was arrested on July 1 along with eight others after a police raid on the offices of SGAE, the day after the internal elections. Bautista was subsequently accused of embezzlement, fraudulent administration and other corporate crimes. José Luis Rodríguez Neri, the director general of SGAE's digital arm, Sociedad Digital de Editores y Autores, has been taken into custody for his alleged masterminding of a multimillion-euro scam in which funds were diverted through companies offering fictitious services.
SGAE is currently in the hands of an interim governing commission. More than 300 cinema and music figures have called for an extraordinary assembly and a complete overhaul of the body.
