Prison sentences for Cas Palau corruption scandal ringleaders confirmed
Millet and Montull face up to 9.5 years and have to return €23m while €6.6m will be seized from defunct CDC party
Prison sentences for the two ringleaders of the Cas Palau corruption scandal were confirmed by Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday.
The long, drawn-out investigation into allegations of corruption and financial irregularities committed by Catalan cultural officials and a major, now defunct, Catalan political party has a final decision. This means that while it can be appealed before the Constitutional Court, the verdict must now be executed.
Sentences of 9 years and 8 months and 7 years and 6 months in prison were confirmed for two former officials, Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull, respectively. Both men were in charge of the Palau de la Música concert hall for decades and confessed to diverting funds from the cultural entity into their own bank accounts.
The Catalan high court found Millet and Montull guilty of taking 23 million euros from the institution. This has now also been established by the Supreme Court, meaning the pair will have to return the money to the Palau de la Música.
Montull’s daughter, Gemma, who was also charged, had been sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison, but Spain's top judges reduced her sentence to 4 years with 2.6 million euro fine for money laundering.
The case also involved the CDC party, a defunct predecessor to PDeCAT, one of the organizations that is part of Junts per Catalunya, the pro-independence group governing Catalonia with Quim Torra as president and Carles Puigdemont as party leader.
The Supreme Court lowered CDC's former treasurer Daniel Osàcar's sentence from 4 years and five months to 3 years and six months in prison. The party was accused of rigging public tenders in exchange for commissions to illegally finance itself with money that was transferred through false concert hall donations.
Some €6.6m will be seized from the defunct party, as was confirmed on Thursday.