Mariano Rajoy's party hit with prison sentences over corruption

[sandensea]

Source: The National

Sentences totalling more than 350 years have been handed down by Spain’s National Court in a long-running corruption case at the centre of which is Mariano Rajoy’s ruling People’s Party (PP).

Former party treasurer Luis Bárcenas was sentenced to 33 years in jail and fined €44 million ($47 million) and the PP itself around €250,000 ($293,000) for benefiting from kickbacks given in exchange for awarding contracts to a network of business people.

Businessman Francisco Correa, the scheme’s ringleader, was jailed for 51 years and Pablo Crespo, another businessman, for 37 years for his part in what was known as the “Gürtel” plot - named after the German translation for belt, for which the Spanish word is correa.

The case saw Rajoy give evidence in July, the first time a serving prime minister has appeared in court while holding office since Spain’s transition to democracy four decades ago.

Read more: http://www.thenational.scot/news/16247629.Spanish_PM_s_party_hit_with_prison_sentences_over_corruption/

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Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and proof of kickbacks in his name.

Former hardline IMF head Rodrigo Rato, currently in prison, is also listed.

[C Moon]

1. The U.S. needs stiffer penalties for voting related crimes.

[sandensea]

3. We do see it for Democrats who slip - but for Rapepublicans, mostly just impunity.

It's been said that nothing promotes corruption like impunity.

Nothing except selective enforcement - which makes the wrongdoing twice as rewarding for those who get a pass.

[C Moon]

6. Yes. So true.

[alwaysinasnit]

2. Is this the same administration that sent law enforcement to try to stop the secession movement?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/world/europe/spain-catalonia-mariano-rajoy.html

Any thoughts?

[sandensea]

4. Oh, yes. He's a larcenous thug in the tradition of Francisco Franco.

Catalonia's independence movement was fairly dormant - until Rajoy's high-handed tactics.

[alwaysinasnit]

10. Thanks for sharing.

This is a very informative video. Thanks.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Years later, I discovered by reading your article why Rafael Correa's supporters waved belts!

I realized I was missing information when I saw these images! Now I know.

Thank you for your article on the "People’s Party." It's good to see them going away.

[sandensea]

8. Ha! Good mnemonic device.

Especially in his first campaign, when Correa was less well known to Ecuadorean voters.

I'm chuckling to myself a little because, as often happens in Latin America, words can very greatly in meaning from country to country.

In Argentina and Uruguay, for instance, a correa is a leash; but a belt on men's pants is a cinturón.

And speaking of Argentina, I understand one of the other major corruption cases engulfing the PP - the 'Operation Lazo' illegal fundraising scheme - is tied to Macri.

As mayor, Macri bought $40 million of 20 year-old Spanish subway cars that were so obsolete, they required over $30 million to be adapted to the Buenos Aires metro. A third of these have not yet been incorporated to the rolling stock; some have instead been used for explosives tests.

There's reason to believe some of that $40 million was laundered for the benefit of the PP by way of Operation Lazo.

Macri and Rajoy as you know are very close politically.

Macri is said to have arranged asylum in Spain should Argentina's financial bicycle bubble blow up on him before he leaves office (his mother was recently given expedited Spanish citizenship by Rajoy).

[pecosbob]

7. All they have to do is enforce money laundering statutes

and they could send the Velcro Don to a US Penitentiary for centuries. The entire conscious world has known about his money laundering for the Russians for decades. People like Trump and Cohen operate like all the Keystone Cops version of mafiosos we saw in the eighties like Gatti. Think they can do whatever they like as long as they cover their tracks, keep a low profile and don't draw enough scrutiny to ever have their books examined by the Feds. It was a monumentally dumb move for someone with his illegal financial past to run for public office where he would inevitably make powerful enemies and himself eventually bring the hounds to his own door. Hounds in this case being Robert Mueller, a bulldog with maybe the most un-impeachable character and Republican credentials I have ever seen. He should have stuck to selling his name to bogus luxury properties in places people still have to cook their food over open fires to let oil-rich despots launder their stolen money.

[sandensea]

9. Sure - if they could find federal judges that aren't Rajoy puppets.

Rajoy has used the already large number of Opus Dei-aligned (very right-wing) judges to go after the rest - such that he controls most of the judiciary.

Right-wing governments in Latin America such as Brazil's Temer and Argentina's Macri (and well as far-left ones like Venezuela's Maduro) have done something similar.

As you know, Alberto Gonzales was going in the same direction (against U.S. Attorneys who refused to persecute Democrats), and Cheeto of course is a big fan of having puppet judges.

Cheeto had better lose in 2020, or there won't be a real judge left - at least at the federal level.

[pecosbob]

11. GOP decided the rules don't apply to them because they're right and we're wrong.

Their Rubicon came in the form of guns-for-hostages and the October surprise which morphed directly into guns for cocaine for money for guns for right-wing death squads.

It's that deranged American belief in the lone-wolf that has to bend or break the rules because...stuff. Manifested in endless television bs in this country for generations.

*without a judiciary (even our bad version of one)...game over.