The first penalty handed down in the Taula case marks a major setback for Marcos Benavent, once at the helm of Imelsa, the publicly traded arm of the Valencian City Council, and for his business associate Rafael García Barat, owner of Thematica Events. Both men received substantial prison terms: Benavent seven years and ten months, García Barat nine years and two months, for defrauding a total of 336,548 euros from the Imelsa treasury and the Ministry of Culture and Valencia City Council between 2008 and 2012 through Thematica Events, a company they controlled.
The third-strongest sentence in the Thematica Events segment of the Taula proceedings falls on Francisca Tamarit, who led the Cultural Action service at the Valencian City Council. She was sentenced to five years in prison for perjury, embezzlement of public documents, and falsification of a public document tied to the 2008 and 2009 Bibliobús program.
The remaining two players in Benavent’s network are Jaime José Úbeda, who received three years in prison, and José Estarlich, who was sentenced to seven months after admitting the facts. Additionally, two Seville-based businessmen who served as subcontractors for an Imelsa event contracted through Thematica Events pleaded guilty and accepted sentences that involved returning the defrauded funds to secure their release from jail.
In another portion of the twelfth segment of the Taula case, the payments linked to municipal campaigns in Moncada and Vilamarxant—conducted under Thematica Events—with public funds, the Bibliobús contracts at Valencia City Council, the Muvim project, and the Berceo Mantenimiento screen company to Imelsa, were evaluated as benefiting Marcos Benavent personally through falsified invoices. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office sought the return of 456,499.98 euros to the public coffers for money embezzled or laundered across these events. The court, however, reduced this request to 336,548 euros to be restored to Valencia City Council’s accounts (106,728 euros) and to Valencia City Council (229,821.05 euros).
The verdict also includes acquittals for the civil liability subsidiary of the People’s Party, Juan José Medina, the former mayor of Moncada and the campaign coordinator for the PP in Valencia province. Medina was cleared of embezzlement alongside Benavent and García Barat for the Moncada and Vilamarxant campaigns during the 2007 municipal elections and the 2008 general elections. The total claimed from the PP amounted to 41,819.47 euros.
Two acquittals in the case
The judges of the fifth division of the Valencian Court concluded that the services provided by Themática Events SL during the 2007 Moncada and Vilamarxant municipal elections and the 2008 general elections were not demonstrated as financed through overspending on invoices issued to Imelsa for other concepts.
The ruling also acquits Juan Enrique Montblanch, Imelsa’s former financial director, on the grounds that he did not participate in the events.