Gürtel scheme suspects to testify about pope visit
Questions remain unanswered over alleged payoffs to secure contract for TV broadcast
High Court Judge Pablo Ruz has issued subpoenas in the ongoing investigation into alleged payoffs that took place to secure a contract to televise Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Valencia in July 2006.
At the prosecution’s petition, Ruz subpoenaed the three main defendants in the Gürtel contracts-for-kickbacks conspiracy to testify in May. Francisco Correa, the alleged Gürtel ringleader, his assistant Pablo Crespo and his point man in Valencia, Álvaro Pérez, will testify along with former Valencia regional television director Pedro García over the course of two days, beginning on May 7.
Prosecutors believe that the Gürtel defendants gave García cash and gifts in exchange for a seven-million-euro contract for the live broadcast of the pope’s visit. A Gürtel front company, Teconsa, a construction firm with no previous experience in broadcasting, was hired to set up television screens and loudspeakers along the route taken by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Valencia.
Prosecutors say that Teconsa made a three-million euro profit from the overpriced contract.
