This report concerns Hercules CF and the Hercules Foundation and their settlement of two million euros owed to the Treasury. Abdessamad Ezzalzouli, known as Abde, covered the transfer costs. The payments were documented five days after a judge opened an investigation into the matter. The rise in costs affected both organizations, their presidents Carlos Parody and Valentine Bottle, and the two trustees of the Foundation, Javier Leon and Jose Maria Caruana, who agreed to comply with the process for all individuals and entities when evidence of crime is found by the prosecution.
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This judge, Maria Luisa Carrascosa, approved the line of inquiry presented by Prosecutor Martin Lopez Nieto and the State Attorney. Rather than depositing the two million received for Abde’s transfer into the club’s Sabadell account, the funds were kept in a personal vehicle during the ongoing investigations. The foundation had opened an account at Caja Rural, which had been inactive for several years.
Additionally, the court noted the use of 33 checks for 60,000 euros and one check for 15,772 euros to avoid embargo after the 2011 bankruptcy; the breach of the agreement with the Tax Office weighed on the club’s record.
The revenue was to be routed through the Bank of Spain on Thursday. With payment certificates in hand, attorney Ignacio Gally, representing those investigated, would present them to the court along with a document detailing the operation.
A document indicated that both the Prosecutor’s Office and the Tax Office acknowledged that 480,000 euros of the two million received by Abde were used to pay a debt deemed privileged as a result of the competition, with the remaining 1,520,000 euros plus statutory interest from the endorsement of the check by Hercules to the Foundation, to be accounted for.
For the record of the payments made by the two institutions under investigation and their leaders and employers, the foundation contributed 1,229,301 euros while Hercules provided the remaining 351,134. Of this amount, 60,435 euros corresponded to interest to be calculated from the moment Abde’s transfer was recorded in the Foundation’s account rather than Hercules’s, and 290,698 euros covered the remaining principal of 1,520,000 euros.
In his statement, which will be presented to the court, Gally explains that the payment does not exonerate any potential criminal liability and emphasizes that it should not be construed as admission of guilt. He notes that none of those investigated attempted to evade Hercules’s creditors, including the Tax Office.
Regardless of the income to public coffers, this does not warrant the dismissal of the criminal case ongoing since last summer for alleged concealment of assets, as stated by the public prosecutor’s office.
The public accusation will continue as a fact, according to the Ministry of Public Affairs, which underscored that the payment does not erase the crime involved. The indictment, however, has not yet been prepared, leaving open the possibility of risk and the potential for reduced penalties, though not a dismissal of the case. The case remains active and extenuating circumstances will be weighed, according to officials.
For Gally, the focus extends beyond repairing the damage; it also questions the presence of crime itself.
Following Hércules’ bankruptcy proceedings related to concessional loans totaling 10.4 million, the arrangement with the Tax Office set an initial payment of two million and a payment plan. That agreement was ultimately settled without payment by the Treasury in 2017, leaving the debt unpaid to date.
An inquiry has also been initiated regarding the country box. The Foundation’s account into which Abde’s transfer was recorded was opened instead of the Hercules Sabadell account, and the judge pursued a financial institution, stating that regulations apply and there is no evidence of collaboration with the accused in the criminal activity.
[Citations: Court documents and official statements attributed to the involved parties and authorities.]