The Malaya corruption trial restarted on Monday when the Málaga provincial court saw a surprise admission from the main accused, Juan Antonio Roca, that he bought lottery tickets which had already been drawn as winning numbers to avoid paying taxes.
Marbella’s ex municipal real estate assessor told the court that the total value of the Primitiva, ONCE and Quiniela tickets was more than 600,000 €, which he bought with money he had in the safe at home and cash received for the sale of a house owned by his wife. He claimed that his wife and daughter, who are also charged in the case, were not involved, even although the winnings were put in their names.
These new sessions in the court are centring on alleged money laundering crimes through Roca’s investments in valuable works of art. The accused admitted that he invested heavily in this way, but claimed their true value to be much lower than the prosecutor’s assessment of 26 million €, giving the amount as just 10 million €.
He said that he had simply ‘shown an interest’ in many of the works that appear on the lists and had not, in fact, purchased them. He claimed to have inflated the value of other items for insurance purposes in case they were stolen, and that he had paid for others in instalments.
Juan Antonio Roca,paid more than 600,000 € in cash for tickets which had already been drawn as winning numbers
Juan Antonio Roca - EFE archive
Post a Comment