02.02.2017 - 16:23
The President of Barcelona’s Port, Sixte Cambra, was arrested this Thursday by Spanish Police for allegedly contributing to former CDC’s irregular funding. The operation is part of an ongoing investigation into alleged irregular financing of CDC,now renamed as Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) to find out whether companies paid a 3% commission to the CDC’s satellite foundations in exchange for public contracts. The ‘Guardia Civil’ searched the headquarters of three Catalan companies, Barcelona’s Port Authority, Infrastructures.cat and Barcelona Infrastructures (BIMSA) and arrested two former CDC representatives too, Antoni Vives and Francesc Sánchez. Other searches were carried out in 12 other towns around Catalonia and more arrests are expected.
Those arrested so far are expected to be released shortly, since the detentions were made during the searches but not ordered by the judge. According to sources close to the investigation, a total of 20 searches will be carried out throughout the day and 15 people are expected to be arrested.
The operation investigates whether companies paid to several foundations related to CDC in exchange for public contracts and is led by the same magistrates’ court which investigated the so-called operation ‘Petrum’. This ongoing operation investigates whether public contracts were offered to companies in exchange of paying a 3% commission to CDC’s satellite foundations.
In the first phase of the investigation, in July 2015, Spanish police arrested Jordi Sumarroca, CEO of Teyco and son of one of the founders of CDC, Carles Sumarroca, and two other members of his family. Officers also arrested the former mayor of the town of Torredembarra, Daniel Massagué.
In October 2015, the Spanish Guardia Civil searched again the CDC headquarters and arrested its treasurer, Andreu Viloca, together with 7 businessmen accused of having allegedly paid irregular commissions to the party in exchange for public contracts.
