Additionally, the defendant faces a 900 euro fine. If he adheres to his commitment to compensate within four years and avoids any new criminal offense in the same period, he will avoid imprisonment, as stated by the president of the First Division in court.
The Office of the Attorney General initially requested a ten-day sentence behind bars and a later proposal of three and a half years. Despite a prior agreement among the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Social Security Institute, the attorney for BBVA, and the defense, before the trial began, the defendant faced ongoing fraud charges with Alicia Grau Córdoba from the office of Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella representing him.
damage repair
Consequently, the accused admitted guilt and received a reduced sentence of one year and nine months after a formal claim for repair of damages was applied.
Before the trial, the defendant deposited 41,560 euros into the judicial account, and it was agreed that 44,227 euros would be paid in installments every 48 months, with 921 euros due each month starting in May.
The total amount paid after the death of the defendant’s grandmother amounted to 119,817 euros, while BBVA completed the final years of collection as required by law, leaving 85,787 euros to be returned to INSS.
The events, heard yesterday by the First Division of the Alicante Court, trace back to early 2017. The defendant’s grandmother died on March 13, 2000, while she was receiving a pension. The SSI Treasury had deposited funds into a bank account that was jointly owned by the grandmother and the defendant, with the latter primarily responsible for management, though the cousin also held a stake in the account.
According to the prosecutor, the National Institute of Social Security remained unaware of the grandmother’s death until January 2017 and continued to pay a pension for nearly 17 years into the same account shared by the grandchildren, during which improper withdrawals were made by one of them.
The prosecution asserts that BBVA failed to fulfill its responsibility to monitor funds as dictated by general Social Security regulations for retirees.
A routine inquiry into the matter revealed that a cousin of BBVA, residing in Madrid, was implicated in the fraud against INSS for more than sixteen years. The bank contacted the cousin about issues related to the grandmother’s pension account. The cousin’s death in March 2000 and the Alicante-based relative who managed the account were identified as central figures in the alleged scheme.