Anti-Corruption Investigates Millionaire Commissions in Procurement of Sanitary Material by Madrid City Council

The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office is investigating a million-dollar commission won by two businessmen who mediated in the purchase of medical supplies at the Madrid City Council in March 2020, the worst moment of the pandemic and a few days after the announcement of the alarm. The investigation is still trying to establish how one of the two businessmen, the son of the Duke of Feria and Nati Abascal, Louis Medina Abascal, contacted the City Council, which in those days was busy closing contracts to purchase anti-virus equipment.

Anti-corruption has been under investigation since the end of 2020 to follow in the footsteps of € 6 million (two contracts, for a total of € 11 million) that went to two intermediaries who facilitated the arrival of masks and antibody tests from China to protect personnel. Who worked in emergency situations in the Madrid City Council. Investigators so far suspect that the commission obtained by Luis Medina Santana is around one million euros, while his friend businessman Alberto Luceno Seron managed to extract five million with the same operation, sources close to the elDiario investigation report. This research.

The specialized unit monitors evidence of document forgery, tax offense and money laundering in both actions, according to the same sources. A few weeks after the pandemic began, Luis Medina Abaskal telephoned a council official who was in charge of procurement three or four times to tell her about a business friend who specializes in importing textiles from Asia. And inform him of the material that may be sold to the Consistor. This was stated in a statement to the prosecutor in early 2021 by a person who coordinated the extraction of materials in the Almeida government and who appeared as a witness in an anti-corruption organization.

According to the investigation, the actions of the righteous Duke’s youngest son and Nati Abaskal would have been reduced to a call to pocket a million euros of state money at a time when the dead numbered in the hundreds every day.

According to the report, these first calls brought Alberto Lucienio Seroni, a friend of Luis Medina, to City Hall and contacted the person who coordinated the purchase of materials in the Almeida government and who processed the company during the public funeral. Madrid. The documents, which appear to be anti-corruption, say the proposals were ratified by the board of directors of the Municipal Funeral Home, which chose them to sign contracts because, unlike the City Council, a public company could reimburse public money for guarantees. Contracts. The first of the investigated awards was € 6.2 million and was intended to purchase FFP2 and KN95 masks; The second lot consisted of € 4.6 million in nitrile gloves; And a third, 3.9 million, were used to get a self-diagnostic test. This was the material that all administrations were trying to bring in at a time when international markets became the market where the goods were first guaranteed payment.

Sources from the municipal groups confirm that then, during the most difficult months of the pandemic, they agreed to all proposals for the purchase of material from the City Council and that they also consisted of using the funeral company to expedite procedures. The urgency and chaos of those days made it impossible to check each contract. In total, the Madrid City Council signed 72 contracts through the Municipal Burial House, valued at € 42.1 million, according to the Court of Auditors.

The first order (out of three ordered by two investigated businessmen) was for graphene masks, which were distributed among city council workers working against most of the virus, such as municipal police, firefighters and samurai. The second contract led to the end of the relationship between the City Council and businessman Luceno Seron, as the conclusion is clear that the City Council official made it before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. The gloves supplied were of a much lower quality than agreed, and the mediator stopped answering the phone. The official at that moment spoke again to Luis Medina Santana to warn her friend that they were looking for her. Finally, the city council was able to directly request a refund of the advance paid to the employer, which Alberto Luceniომo paid between 48 and 72 hours, always according to the history of an Almeida government official. The third contract (which was signed before the advent of substandard gloves and the City Council severed ties with these businessmen) provided the City Council with self-diagnosis tests in exchange for $ 4.6 million.

November 2020: Investigation begins

An investigation into the € 6 million contract for these state contracts was launched in the autumn of 2020. On November 26, the Madrid City Council received a request from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. He requested the contracts, the minutes of the Board of Directors of the Madrid Funeral Service (SFM) and the composition of the said Board. Three weeks later, Consistory sent the documents to a department that specializes in prosecuting corruption.

In the second request, on December 30, 2020, Prosecutor Luis Rodriguez Sol asked the City Council that the person coordinating the procurement provide him with his telephone and instant notifications of procurement dates, as well as messages from his corporate address. Email The information was sent to the Anti-Corruption Council on January 25, 2021.

Following the opening of the investigation case by the prosecution, three contracts attracted the attention of the Court of Auditors. The urgent procedure by which they were approved was common in various administrations at the time and included the declaration of a state of alarm imposed by the Spanish government. The aim was to speed up the process of purchasing materials by institutions in dire straits and by international suppliers for the highest bidder at the materials auction. The material imported by businessman Luceno Seron belonged to a Malaysian-based company called Leno, although the material was imported from China.

Until now, the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has struck contracts in various administrations, which have been huge profits due to the global shortage of materials, which has made the product significantly more expensive and enjoyed the benefits authorized by the administrations. Accelerate their acquisition during periods of very high mortality from COVID-19 infections. In many cases, prosecutors have had to halt investigations after concluding that seemingly unethical businesses have no criminal liability in the face of global suffering because the legal threshold for their conduct was not exceeded as state alarms allowed different governments to avoid the public. Tenders even if the funds were millionaires. In the case of commissions obtained from the above two contracts on masks and anti-corruption antibody tests, the investigation continues.

No experience in the healthcare market

Neither Luis Medina Abacal nor businessman Luceno Seron had any experience in the medical devices market. Luis Medina Abascal, a regular gossip magazine, has been the sole administrator of the Tula Creative Studio in Barcelona since 2014, dedicated to advertising consulting as well as campaign design.

A few weeks after his mediation before the Madrid City Council, in May 2020, Luis Medina created the Sextante trademark, dedicated to interfering in the trade of “diverse products”. The contracts examined are several months old. elDiario.es came to an address that looks like the head office of this company in Madrid, but the person who opened the door denied that any company was located in the luxurious apartment in the city center. This media outlet expressed interest in collecting a version of Louis Medina through third parties, but the businessman declined to comment.

His friend Alberto Javier Lucienio Seroni is a businessman who headed the European School of Management and Business in Madrid ten years ago. According to the Mercantile Registry Bulletin, he has been the sole administrator of the company, dedicated to “commercial intermediation or commission sales of various products, both nationally and internationally” since June 2020. The latter company was set up a few days after Louis Medina. Abaskal created his own and both managed to close this business with the Madrid City Council. elDiario.es repeatedly called Lucien Seron and sent him the content of his request without receiving a response.