He says that in the afternoons he had meetings in hotels because they closed his office at 4:00 p.m.
MADRID, 3 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The nephew of Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, Taishet Fuentes Gutiérrez, who was general director of the Canary Islands Ministry of Livestock, assured in his judicial statement that he was “used” by the businessman Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, alias ‘mediator’, while completely distanced himself from the alleged plot to collect bribes from local businessmen in exchange for political favors.
This was expressed in the statement he gave on February 16 before the head of the Investigating Court Number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres, after being arrested as one of the alleged ringleaders, along with his uncle, Navarro Tacoronte. and the General of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa, to which Europa Press has had access.
According to Fuentes Gutiérrez, he met Navarro Tacoronte in September 2020. The businessman insisted on contacting him through social networks and then through calls to his secretary at the Livestock Directorate to make an appointment.
“He presents himself as part of a company that comes to the Canary Islands because it wants to invest in the primary sector, in renewable energy,” he said, detailing that after that first meeting they began to see each other more frequently: “One week yes, one week no.” .
“From there he asks me what possibilities there are with the issue of subsidies. I tell him that the subsidies in this case are not a diversion, but by concurrences. (*) I explain the submission deadlines, when the periods open. At that time, in 2020, there was no possibility of attending,” he said.
Then, Fuentes Gutiérrez would have clarified to Navarro Tacoronte that they did not have to convince him, but “directly to the rancher, the farmer or the fishermen’s association that wanted to make an investment in renewable energies.”
Fuentes Gutiérrez explained that he considered Navarro Tacoronte as a “company mediator”, “a kind of commercial”, who made it easier for companies that wanted to establish contact with the Ministry to actually do so.
Given the astonishment of the prosecutor, who asked him directly if this was his “usual way of proceeding as CEO”, reminding him of a conversation in which the “mediator” asked him for the name of “other companies that are in a situation of difficulty”, Fuentes Gutiérrez pointed out that now, “in the past”, he realized that Navarro Tacoronte could have thought that “he could have a hook there”, although he asserted that he did not provide him with that information.
“I feel, after all (…) that Mr. Navarro has used me,” he said, adding later that, on the contrary, he would not have taken advantage of or benefited from anyone.
The instructor also focused on the relationship between Juan Bernardo and Taishet Fuentes, as well as the latter’s link with his uncle’s sports association, to which -according to the judicial investigation- the businessmen had to pay a toll of 5,000 euros to enter the machinery of the plot.
“I have no link with the association, it was not even my reference club when I was a child or my current children’s… And the relationship with him, well, the normal one between an uncle and a nephew,” he described.
Along these lines, he denied that he acted as a “bridge” between ‘Tito Berni’ and the businessmen, affirming at the same time that he did not know –and does not know– General Espinosa. “I don’t know who he is”, he repeated himself several times.
Likewise, he denied having asked businessmen for money for the sports association or having received any commission for the amounts paid to it. On this, the prosecutor confronted him with a recorded conversation in which he spoke with Navarro Tacoronte about “5,000 euros” which were later referred to as “5,000 pens” for said association. Fuentes Gutiérrez assured that he did not remember. “If it’s recorded, documented, we can take a closer look at it,” he offered.
He did acknowledge having received a ‘bizum’ from one of the businessmen linked to the plot, but he justified it by stating that it was a refund of a loan that he made twice because supposedly the ‘mediator’ had forgotten his wallet. According to what he said, he asked Navarro Tacoronte to return the money and the person who made the refund was the businessman Antonio Bautista.
Faced with such a story, the judge replied: “They come to you so that you can obtain subsidies and are you the one who ends up giving money to the businessman?” The instructor also questioned that he met with businessmen who “needed access to the administration” in hotels instead of in official offices, something that Fuentes Gutiérrez blamed on the fact that “the building closed at 4:00 p.m. in the Gran Canaria Ministry.”
The prosecutor also wanted to know if it was “usual” for businessmen to pay for hotel stays, referring to the case of one who paid 2,500 euros for the stay of several people, himself included, for one night. According to Fuentes Navarro, he used to pay for his rooms but that businessman and Navarro Tacoronte insisted “no.” “And I: ‘No, if this is not a problem (in passing it as an expense) … And they did not let me pay,” he said.
Faced with all this, the instructor asked him if “it is usual for him to stay with the people who come to him as a public office” and if he was “aware” that “receiving money, transfers or ‘bizum'” being a public worker ” It can be interpreted as an indication of the crime of bribery at least”, to which he replied with “I don’t know”.
“The gifts, the payments, the hotels, the prostitutes and others that have been paid during the time that has been investigated, do you consider it normal in the exercise of public function?” she snapped, getting a “no” in response .
In this context of “leisure meetings”, the prosecutor brought up “a conversation in which reference is made to a catalog” and in which Fuentes Gutiérrez “expresses his impression” of it and “a series of services”. The nephew of ‘Tito Berni’ framed it as a “joke”, ending again with an “I don’t know”.
