ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella is thought to have done a deal with the prosecutor, and appears to be 'spilling the beans'.

The ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella is thought to have done a deal with the prosecutor, and appears to be 'spilling the beans'.

A week after first expected by the media, the man at the centre of the Malaya corruption case, the largest ever municipal corruption case ever seen in Spain, Juan Antonio Roca, finally took to the stand in the Málaga court on Monday.

Roca started his declaration after 1pm to the anti-corruption prosecutor, Juan Carlos López Caballero.

The ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor told the court that he paid 741,000 €, ‘some 123 million pesetas’, to Pedro Román, in a real estate backhander based on land sold on in Puerto Banús. Roca said that he had 15% of the company which had been established to purchase and sell the land, and that Roman had 62% of the shares. He even said that the money was paid in four cheques in foreign currency ‘from a previous real estate deal’ and with 50,000 € in cash.

Already there is speculation that Roca is spilling the beans as part of a deal with the anti-corruption prosecutor. His details of such a payment goes directly against the statement made to the court last week by the ex Deputy Mayor, Pedro Román, the right hand man for many years to the late Mayor, Jesús Gil y Gil.

Román claimed that he only found out that Roca took part in the Swiss based company, Lipsag A.G. after he had left it.

Roca contended that it was Jesús Gil who ‘always determined the conditions’, and said that he had instructions from Gil to modify the existing deal. It called on Roman to pay 240 million pesetas for the use of the land, when the previous owner had been charged 60. ‘El Señor Gil told me that as it was Pedro Román, the quantity was higher’.

It’s estimated that Marbella Town Hall lost out to the tune of some 5 million € because of the deal which allegedly achieved a profit for those involved of more than six million €.

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