Ex-president caught up in new fraud probe

Investigations are ongoing into the alleged misappropriation of an estimated two million euros of public funds through Ibatur at certain trade travel fairs such as FITUR in Madrid.

Others from whom the judge wants to hear are political figures dating from the Partido Popular regional government in power between 2003 and 2007.
They include ex Managing Directors of Ibatur, Juan Carlos Alía and Raimundo Alabern, and the Institute's former Secretary Miguel Ángel Bonet.
The implications announced by Judge Francisco José Pérez come in response to a request from the Anti-corruption Prosecution service of the Balearic Islands after a court declaration in Madrid some weeks ago by the owner of the Over Marketing company, Daniel Mercado as part of the “Over” corruption scandal investigations.

Contracts
Mercado, who has also been cited in the Ibatur scandal by Judge Pérez, admitted having profited from public money through contracts awarded to him during the Partido Popular election campaign of 2003.

The contracts, some of which were for Ibatur, were allegedly “put his way” to partly compensate for costs he bore during the campaign.
According to Mercado, José María Rodríguez promised Over that he would be awarded the project for constructing the Balearic exhibition stand at the Fitur tourism fair in Madrid.

Although he created a design for the exhibition, the contract was finally awarded to the Feria Service company.
To compensate Over, Mercado claimed Rodríguez said that he would send a bill to Feria Service.
Mercado said that the Over Marketing Company also organised spectacles and the attendance of well-known figures to embellish the Balearic exhibition stand at Fitur in 2004.

Mercado specified that Over was paid 90'000 euros for this work, an “inflated” amount which no one checked because it had allegedly been agreed previously with Matas and Rodríguez.

Also implicated by the judge yesterday in Palma was the owner of a leading local events company, an employee, Angel Navarro and Juan José Trobat, of Feria Service.

Ex Tourism Minister Joan Flaquer has already made a declaration of his own volition in the Ibatur case on two occasions, his lawyer Carlos Florit said yesterday.

The lawyer said that after reading the contents of Mercado's declaration in the press, Flaquer presented a written declaration.
The judge subsequently decided to implicate him.
Jaume Matas is already heavily implicated in the Palma Arena velodrome corruption case and the former President and Spanish Minister for the Environment is also implicated in another corruption investigation involving his wife and the Over Case probe into political campaign funding while he was President and leader of the PP in the Balearics.