Emphasizes the “uselessness of the investigation proceedings” claimed by the ventriloquist’s defense
MADRID, 11 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The judge of the National High Court in charge of the investigation of ‘Operation Titella’ has again ruled out finding out if the policemen who investigated the television producer José Luis Moreno have received any type of recognition, cross or medal for their intervention in this process.
In an order this Thursday, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 2, Ismael Moreno, dismisses the appeal for reform filed by the defense of the ventriloquist and focuses on the “uselessness of the proceedings of investigation that have been denied” for the second time.
“Since the purpose of the investigation is to collect the sources of evidence that allow evaluating the relevance or inadmissibility of the eventual prosecution of some facts that could present a criminal nature and that show that they can be attributed to the responsibility of certain participants, it is evident that the proceedings interested parties do not lead to the clarification of facts or outline the participation of those investigated”, criticizes the instructor.
In this context, the magistrate recalls that the admission of the proceedings must be justified so much that they serve to “provide precise information for the judicial decision”, an extreme that is not fulfilled in this case.
Judge Moreno ratifies himself in the order from last October by which he initially denied this request. In it, he recalled that from the initiation of the procedure to date, different kinds of proceedings had been carried out to clarify the facts. This petition, unlike others that were accepted, would not be intended to “clarify the alleged responsibilities” arising from the case.
Thus, the magistrate stressed that in this procedure the “possible commission of crimes of fraud, document falsification or money laundering” is investigated by “a criminal organization, which operates at an international level, whose criminal activity is diversified into different specialties from the fraud and fraud against banking entities and private investors, to the falsification of bank documents such as checks and promissory notes”.
In this context, the judge assured that he did not see what were “the specific reasons that lead” to this proposal, which does not seek to “clarify the facts under investigation.” That same thing, he added then, is “what must necessarily lead to its dismissal, given its lack of suitability and usefulness for the purposes of this proceeding.”
The producer’s representation required the magistrate to inquire if any of the police officers involved in this case had been awarded in any way. “If so, we also request that his identification be certified, detailing his position, the award recognized and his date, as well as the service provided within this cause,” he requested.
This request was made, according to the defense, while Moreno was summoned to the procedure as a result of “an absolutely erratic police investigation, having provided police reports to the present procedure in which statements are made, at least, erroneous and untrue.”
“The manifestly erroneous content of the police reports is a question raised by practically all of those investigated in this case, despite which its content has not yet been rectified, in an incomprehensible way,” criticized Moreno’s lawyer in his letter .
The investigations around Titella began in 2018 and the operation hatched last June with the arrest of the ventriloquist and that of dozens of people in different cities for an alleged fraud perpetrated through a corporate network.
The investigators divide the alleged plot into two organizations: one led by Moreno, Antonio Aguilera and Antonio Salazar, dedicated since 2017 to “fraud and fraud against banking entities and private investors”, “to the falsification of bank effects such as checks and promissory notes” and to “money laundering”; and another, headed by Carlos Brambilla, an alleged drug trafficker who would have used said structure to launder money.
According to the judicial report, Moreno and Aguilera would be the “maximum responsible” and Salazar, the third in action. Each one would have a function. The producer, “as a well-known public figure, would lend his name as a business card” in order to easily get the financing they would pretend to need to launch a film project. Therefore, he “was the main recipient of the funds obtained”.
That money would then pass into the hands of Aguilera and Salazar. The two would have “extensive knowledge in banking and commercial operations”, so they would take care of creating the companies, “make them up”, appoint administrators and present them to the banking entities as the recipients of the necessary financing for said projects. In reality, they would have no activity at all.
Through this network of “shell companies” managed by presumed figureheads, both organizations would move “large amounts of cash” which they tried to dispose of with income that they passed off as benefits from their commercial work or with cash injections for which they would have the complicity of bank employees who would take their commission in exchange for introducing this money into the legal circuit.
