Economy The Supreme Court sentences the former president of Pescanova to six years in prison and confirms that he must compensate the injured parties

The Supreme Court has sentenced the former executive president of Pescanova Manuel Fernández de Sousa-Faro to six years in prison as the perpetrator of a continuous crime of falsifying the annual accounts in medial bankruptcy with an also continuous crime of falsifying economic and financial information, as well as as for the crime of seizure of property

Economy The Supreme Court sentences the former president of Pescanova to six years in prison and confirms that he must compensate the injured parties

The Supreme Court has sentenced the former executive president of Pescanova Manuel Fernández de Sousa-Faro to six years in prison as the perpetrator of a continuous crime of falsifying the annual accounts in medial bankruptcy with an also continuous crime of falsifying economic and financial information, as well as as for the crime of seizure of property. The High Court also maintains that the businessman, jointly and severally with the Pescanova company, must compensate injured investors, both companies and individuals, with more than 125 million euros.

The Chamber has estimated the different appeals filed against the resolution issued by the National Court in the so-called "Pescanova case". In the sentence, notified to the parties this Wednesday, the sentence against the president of the group as author of two crimes of falsification in the annual accounts and of falsification of economic and financial information, in relation to medial bankruptcy, and of a crime of seizure of property (also maintaining the conviction of his wife as a necessary cooperator of the latter). In addition, with respect to this defendant, the mitigating circumstances of confession, reparation for damage and incomplete state of necessity are ruled out. However, he is acquitted, as well as the other defendants, of the crimes of forgery in a commercial document and aggravated fraud, which were also attributed to him, since the Supreme Court understood that there was no deceit, causal to the patrimonial displacement, suffered by the financial entities.

On the other hand, the High Court also maintains the sentences, as necessary collaborators of the crime of falsification in the annual accounts, of several executives of the company, although, they are imposed a lesser sentence by application of the provisions of article 65.3 of the Penal Code.

The judgment -against which there is no appeal whatsoever- acquits, however, the external auditor of Pescanova, as well as the auditing company and, in terms of civil liability, the latter's insurer, considering that the appealed resolution has as its proven and describes careless or inattentive behavior on the part of the first, but not the malicious behavior that is required with respect to the crimes for which he was convicted in the instance.

Two companies were also acquitted, which had been convicted as necessary collaborators in the crime of seizure of assets, considering the Supreme Court that the acts carried out by individuals were not for the benefit, directly or indirectly, of those, compared to what is required by article 31 bis of the Penal Code.

Likewise, the Chamber appreciates the mitigating circumstance of undue delays with respect to all those convicted: the procedure lasted for approximately seven years until the issuance of the sentence handed down in the instance, which is considered sufficient, despite the objective complexity of the case. procedure, to understand that the right to due process has been injured, in particular, taking into account that the appeals, which are estimated, took two more years to substantiate.

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