MARBELLA CLUB

Another twist in the Malaya case with the owner of the real estate promoter, AIFOS, Jesús Ruiz Casado, telling the court on Wednesday that, despite his declaration on Tuesday that he had never made any payments to the Marbella Municipal Real Estate Assessor, Juan Antonio Roca, that in fact he did make the payment ‘of some amounts’ through his commercial director, Francisco García Lebrón. Casado explained that he had found a 135,000 € mismatch in a report on the accounts of his company which had been presented to the Court, and that there was a 90,000 € coincidence with the notes in the computer archives of Juan Antonio Roca. He said he told his commercial director to make a payment to support the Town Hall sponsorships and fiestas. ‘I did not control this matter sufficiently’, he said and said he pleaded guilty to avoid prison, and admitted making payments of 4.8 million € for town planning favours between 2004 and 2006, for which he is accused.

A Moroccan rapper who has become one of the monarchy's boldest critics on Wednesday awaited a verdict after a trial on assault charges which his lawyers and right activists said were a ploy to muzzle the popular singer. Mouad Belrhouat, better known as El-Haqed, or "The Sullen One", has become the singing voice of a protest movement inspired by Arab uprisings, demanding a constitutional monarchy, an independent judiciary and a crackdown on corruption. The judge adjourned the case on Wednesday after an all-night hearing to consider his verdict, expected on Thursday. The 24-year-old rapper has been in jail since his arrest in September after a brawl with a monarchist. Bail requests by his defence team have been rejected and the trial has been adjourned six times. "The charges are a farce. El Haqed is being persecuted for his critical songs. The state is keeping him in jail and repeatedly adjourning his trial to silence him," said Khadija Ryadi, who chairs Morocco's main human rights group, AMDH. The rapper's cutting lyrics telling Moroccans to "wise up" have angered many monarchists. In one song he raps that the king spends so much time giving orders that he has little time to count his money in Switzerland. However, he has struck a chord with young Moroccans who are disenchanted with poor or non-existent jobs and one song "Bite just as much as you can chew" has received more than 600,000 hits on Youtube. ALL-NIGHT SESSION Belrhouat's trial is a test for the Justice and Development Party PJD.L, which like its Tunisian peers is a moderate Islamist party leading a government for the first time after it won elections in November. In a Casablanca court packed with Belrhouat supporters, the judge begun to hear the case in an unusually late session on Tuesday which continued through the night. Mohamed Bouawine, one of the 24 lawyers who have volunteered to defend the rapper, said his client faces up to three years in jail if found guilty. AMDH's Ryadi says Belrhouat has become yet another case among "dozens of prisoners of conscience" in Morocco. Local and international right groups say hundreds of Islamists have been jailed in what they said were politically-motivated trials rushed through after suicide attacks in Casablanca in 2003, that killed 45 people. Morocco's judiciary is meant to be given more independence under reforms crafted last year by the Arab world's longest-serving monarchy as it sought to preempt a popular revolt. The man whom Belrhouat is alleged to have assaulted said the injury left him incapacitated for 45 days but defence lawyers produced evidence suggesting he recovered far more quickly and was being used as a political pawn. Belrhouat's father Mohamed told Reuters he would not be supporting his son in court had the rapper done anything wrong. "My son was set up. The police and the ambulance turned up five minutes after the incident: This never happens here."

Indian households should completely switch to olive oil as a cooking medium as its nutritional value is very high, it is rich in monounsaturated 'good' fats and, when used daily, can bring instant and easy wellness to a family's diet, celebrity chef and noted cookery expert Nita Mehta says. "Even though we have such a wide range of olive oils in our market, people don't seem to use them because of their mental block that the flavour of olive oil doesn't gel with Indian flavors," Mehta said at the launch here Satuday her latest book, "Indian Cooking With Olive Oil".

top Spanish former official went on trial Monday at the start of legal proceedings into a raft of corruption scandals in which King Juan Carlos' son-in-law is also accused. Jaume Matas, the ex-head of the regional government of the Balearic islands who had also served as environment minister, appeared at a court in Palma de Majorca alongside three other suspects. They have been charged with embezzlement, fraud, falsifying documents and influence peddling. Matas was charged in March 2010 and was released after paying a record bail of 3.0 million euros ($3.8 million). Prosecutors are demanding an eight and a half years jail term. Matas served as president of the government of the Balearic Islands between 1996-1999 and then between 2003-2007. He was environment minister between 2000-2003. The so-called "Palma Arena affair" as the Spanish press has dubbed the corruption scandal centres on the suspected embezzlement of public funds during the construction of a velodrome in Palma de Majorca between 2005-2007. An investigation concluded that the cycling track had an unjustified cost overrun of 41 million euros. That led authorities on the archipelago to uncover other cases of suspected embezzlement of public funds, including one allegedly involving royal son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin. The 43-year-old ex-Olympic handball player is scheduled to appear in court on February 25 as part of a probe into corruption at a non-profit organisation, Instituto Noos, which he headed between 2004 and 2006. The probe centres notably on a payment of 2.3 million euros to Instituto Noos for organising a tourism and sports conference in 2005 and 2006. Urdangarin, who has the title Duke of Palma and is married to the king's youngest daughter, Princess Cristina, has denied any wrongdoing. Last month the royal family suspended the the duke from official engagements and the palace's highest official, Rafael Spottorno, gave an unprecedented rebuke, telling Spanish media his behaviour "does not seem exemplary".

The growing strength of the British pound against the Euro is to make the Spanish property market an interesting prospect, according to an expert. Mark Stucklin, head of Spanish Property Insight, explained that 2012 will be a "key year", meaning Brits will benefit from attractive offers "after some real years in the dumps". "Within Spanish property, you have to define what you are talking about. Is it the middle of nowhere property that was badly built in the boom or the nicest property of which there is scarce supply?" he said. "It is a completely different market. With the best property, I think we are now in [a period of] price stability and, with the euro getting cheaper compared to the pound, that will mean that it gets more interesting for British buyers." Mr Stucklin went on to say that if potential buyers looked at the Spanish market in terms of euros, they would be able to find "50 per cent or more price reductions and you can find property on sale at the replacement cost". This, he explained was cheaper than building property. Brits looking to move to Spain should consider housing excess belongings and furniture in a self storage unit.

Hours before kicking off earnings season, Alcoa (AA: 9.44, +0.02, +0.16%) said on Monday it plans to scale down operations at three aluminum smelters in Italy and Spain to tighten expenses as metal prices continue to fall. The curtailment will reduce the company’s global smelting capacity by 12%, or 531,000 metric tons, with operations as its Portovesme, Italy, and La Coruna and Avilies, Spain, facilities impacted in the first half of 2012. Alcoa plans to permanently close the facility in Portovesme, which has capacity of 150,000 metric tons, but just partially and temporarily shut the operations in Spain. The company said those plants are among the highest-cost producers in the Alcoa system. The Pittsburgh-based company blamed the curtailments on an uncompetitive energy market combined with rising raw materials costs and falling aluminum prices, which are down 27% from their peak in 2011. The move is a part of Alcoa’s long-term goal of improving its aluminum production operating margins by cutting down on costs. Last week, Alcoa said it would permanently close its smelter in Alcoa, Tennessee, and two potlines at its Rockdale, Texas, smelter. The company is expected to cut a total of 240,000 metric tons, or about 5%, of its global smelting capacity. “In today’s rapidly changing global economy, it is imperative to respond quickly to maintain competitiveness,” said Chris Ayers, president of Alcoa Global Primary Products.  “This decision was made after thorough analysis of all the possible alternatives.” The company said the total impact on its workforce will not be determined until consultations with employee representatives and government have been completed. However, the three facilities employ a total of about 1,500. Alcoa also says it will aggressively accelerate plans to reduce the cost of raw materials used by its primary products business and adjust capacity in the global refining system to reflect internal demand and market conditions.

Banco Santander SA Chairman Emilio Botin lost a bid at Spain’s National Court to block three groups’ ability to file complaints against him over accusations he broke national tax laws by hiding funds in Switzerland. Appeals by Botin, his brother Jaime Botin and other people contesting a November decision to allow the complaints by the three groups were rejected, the Madrid-based court said today in a ruling sent by e-mail. In Spain, any citizen can make a so- called popular accusation in legal proceedings even if they are not directly involved in the matter. The court said in June it would investigate Botin and 11 family members after tax officials received information on clients at HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private bank from French authorities. The Botin family, in a statement distributed by Santander at the time, said it has put its tax affairs in order “voluntarily,” has met all its tax obligations and hopes the case will be cleared up in court. A spokesman for Spain’s largest bank, who asked not to be identified in line with company policy, declined to comment today in a phone interview. The complaints were made by three groups called Ciudadania Anticorrupcion, Asociacion Contra La Corrupcion Sistemica Y En Defensa Del Libre Ejercicio De La Acusacion Popular and Manos Limpias, the court said.

Spanish home sales declined in November for a ninth month as the economy contracted and unemployment surged. The number of transactions fell 14.4 percent from a year earlier, the National Statistics Institute in Madrid said in an e-mailed statement today. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the People’s Party leader whose government took over from the Socialists on Dec. 22, has said he will restore a tax rebate for the purchase of homes to spur the market as a 23 percent unemployment rate weighs on demand. Spain is struggling to work through an excess of 700,000 new homes after the collapse of a building boom saddled banks with 176 billion euros ($225 billion) of what the Bank of Spain calls “troubled” assets linked to real estate. Spain’s economy contracted in the final months of 2011 as tourism and exports, the drivers of a recovery in the first-half from a three-year slump, weakened, the Bank of Spain said on Dec. 29

Foreign Office is urging Britons to remember that its services are reserved for people in real difficultly, and not for finding out Prince Charles' shoe size The Foreign Office has issued a reminder to Britons travelling and living abroad that embassies, high commissions and consulates exist to offer assistance to those in real difficultly, and are not 'concierge services'. To demonstrate their point the Foreign Office decided to reveal some of the odd requests they have received over the last six months. One man in Sofia asked if the Consulate would sell his house for him, whilst another rang the Consulate in Sydney to find out what he should pack for his holiday. A lady in Moscow called the embassy complaining about a buzzing noise in her apartment, a caller in Spain wondered the shoe size of Prince Charles, and a man stranded in an airport asked the Foreign Office to contact his dominatrix. With around two million consular inquires every year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) needs to dedicate its time to helping British citizens abroad in the case of hospitalisation, death, arrest, forced marriage and child abduction. Jeremy Browne, Minister for Consular Affairs, said: “It is important that people understand the level of help we can offer. Our priority is to help people in real difficulty abroad and we cannot do this if our time is diverted by people trying to use us as a concierge service. We need to be able to focus primarily on helping victims of serious crimes, supporting people who have been detained or assisting people who have lost a loved one abroad.”  The Foreign Office has recently set up a call centre in Malaga to filter out some of the non-consular inquires from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra, allowing embassy and consulate staff to focus their time on more important issues at hand. So just remember, there are simply some things the Foreign Office cannot help with, and where to get a Christmas lunch in Malaga, the location of the best fishing spots in Greece and meeting pets in customs in Dubai are some of them.

holiday villa belonging to a Sevilla family was left in a heap of rubble after thieves stole it brick by brick. Gloria Moreno had a villa in the urbanization of Boticaria (Sevilla), near a luxury. Now he has nothing. They have stolen the building brick by brick. When the rafters were taken the ceiling came down and what was supposed to be a beautiful holiday home has become a pile of rubble. Her family bought the home ten years ago as a second home in an area that promised to become a luxurious area. He family lives in Sevilla and thought this place could be good to spend weekends and days off. It was close to the pine forests and was a newly established residential area in quiet environment. However, the construction of the urbanization stopped leaving the villa isolated. For a time they had rented it out, but upon the departure of the tenants, it was targeted by vandals and thieves. These could operate at night with peace of mind they would not be seen by anyone. Inside the house began a process of selective demolition. First, they took doors and windows. They also dismantled the mechanism of purification of the pool. On one visit she saw various holes in the roof, dismissing it as pure vandalism. What she did not know was that vandals were trying to determinte the material of the roof beams. When  iron was found they proceeded to disassemble them one by one to take them and sell them as scrap. By removing the beams the roof collapsed leaving only the walls. But there was something else to steal. In one of the last visits the son of the family saw how someonehad been removing bricks one by one, cleaning and stealing them. What was once a beautiful holiday home is now only a heap of rubble and a hazard.

A group of some twenty foreign residents of the Costa del Sol have denounced a fraud under which they could lose their homes. They have formed a platform to denounce a mortgage fraud which had the objective of getting large amounts of money which was then invested in financial havens such as Luxembourg or the Channel Islands. There were foreign victims, mostly all retired, along the entire Spanish coastline and on the islands, from the Costa del Sol to the Costa Blanca, Baleares and Canaries. The scam was headed by foreign banks and foreign financial advisors, nearly all from Denmark, who had been working for some years in Spain, many without the correct authorisation of the National Commission for Market Values. They told the foreigners purchasing property that they had to get a mortgage as otherwise they would be hit with high Spanish taxes. The sales patter for these inverted mortgages claimed that residents’ homes were in danger from the Spanish taxman, claiming Spain would claim between 70 or 80% in succession tax. In effect the scheme invited the foreigners to defraud the Spanish Hacienda tax authorities. The lawyer representing those affected in Málaga, Antonio Flores, from Lawbird in Marbella, said the victims signed up for ‘predatory mortgages’ which offered the possibility of mortgaging their homes for nearly five years at a value above the level of the official appraisal and investing the money outside Spain, mostly in Luxembourg, in order to obtain a profit which covered their costs and gave them an extra payment. Some 800 contracts for the scheme were taken out between 2004 and 2009, and now the foreigners’ platform on the Costa del Sol is appealing to the National Court that those contracts be declared null and void. The total fraud is estimated at 250 million €. The mortgages were signed in Spain, with Spanish notaries and the investment contracts were signed in offices which the financial agents had in Spain, or in some cases in the client’s home. Nearly all those offices are now closed and the financial agents implicated have abandoned Spain. The clients’ money went on the purchase of currency or bank bonds in operations which soon lost money, leaving many of them now facing the possibility of losing their homes.

Latin American man was arrested at his home in Girona on Thursday morning after telephoning emergency services to say he had killed his two year old daughter. His other daughter, aged six, was found with him at the family home on Calle Oviedo unhurt. She is understood to have been watching television when it happened. Her sister’s decapitated body was found lying on the bed when a medical team arrived at the property with police. The father is reported to have claimed that the devil had ordered him to kill her.

Some of the drugs recovered. Photo - Civil Guard

The Civil Guard have arrested 18 members of a drugs network which had its main base in Bilbao and smuggled cocaine into the country from Colombia for sale on the Canary Islands.

They used drug mules to bring the cocaine into Spain on regular flights to Madrid, who were often made to practice before the trip by swallowing capsules containing a similar volume of flour. Once in Spain, the cocaine was cut at their base in Bilbao and sent on to the island of La Palma for distribution.

The suspects are 14 Colombian citizens, three Spaniards and another from Venezuela. They include six couriers, including two who were arrested in Colombia as they were about to board a flight to Spain and another at Lanzarote Airport. This last was found to be carrying more than one kilo of cocaine inside his body.

Eight addresses were searched as part of the operation, when 11 kilos of cocaine, 6 kilos of cannabis and 1.5 kilos of an adulterating substance were seized.

Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_32647.shtml#ixzz1dJZ9i2Hx

The fine for not picking up dogs crap is raised in Marbella municipality up to 30.000 Euros. Around the street with lovely Marbella apartments, Marbella villas and property Marbella is it full with dog crap. Marbella municipal leaders want to strengthen measures to remove animal waste from the city streets. Therefore it has been assumed increased fines. . A first-time offense will be punishable by between 75 and 500 Euros in fines. Relapses can lead to penalties of up to 2.000 Euros, while cases that are considered particularly serious will be punished with up to 30.000 Euros in fines. The interesting thing about this is how the Marbella municipality is going get any money from the dog owners who miss behaving mostly are poor low class people with no money.

A farmer has died in Guadassuar, Tous, in Valencia after being attacked by a jabalí wild boar. Reports say the 60 year old man was working in his own orange grove when he was surprised by the beast. Miguel E. suffered injuries in the groin and was found with his blood over his hands and face according to witnesses who said it looked like he tried to defend himself from the attack. It happened last Saturday morning. Tous is a municipality where 90% of the population are hunters and nobody can ever remember anything similar ever happening before. The local police say the victim’s son reported that his father had phoned him on his mobile to say he had been injured, but when a neighbour arrived at the scene he was already dead. Reports indicate that he had earlier suffered a heart attack.

National police arrested a member of the Marbella Local Police force who was found shoplifting in a local commercial centre on Saturday. The man had tried to take a camera from the store. Municipal sources say the agent has already handed in his plaque and pistol, and is being suspended from his post without pay. Marbella Town Hall said they lamented the incident which they described as ‘totally isolated’.

Juan Antonio Roca - EFE archive

The Malaya case investigating the widespread corruption in Marbella Town Hall, and with Juan Antonio Roca, the ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor, at the centre of the allegations, has moved on to the most interesting phase, as the Málaga court starts to investigate the bribes.

On Monday, some five years and seven months after his arrest, Roca has had to start to respond to the big questions at the centre of the case, the backhanders he allegedly received from real estate promoters in exchange for licences to build outside the PGOU urban plan. More than 50 people including ex Mayors and Roca himself are expected to declare in this section of the case.

The court considers that Roca was paid by 19 different companies between 2001 and 2006, a total of 33.3 million €. Among the big payers were Carlos Sánchez and Andres Liétor – 6.8 million, José Avila Rojas – five million, and the directors of Aifos – 4.8 million.

The Córdoba promoter Sandokán, who is now a councillor in the city, allegedly handed over 600,000 in exchange for town planning favours.

The prosecutor claims that despite not being elected, a politician or even a civil servant, Roca was the man who was running Marbella Town Hall following the motion of no confidence passed in August 2003 against the then Mayor, Julian Muñoz. Roca’s power, lubricated by bags of cash, saw all the councilors act as his subordinates.

Key to the prosecution’s case are a series of files found at the lawyers offices, Maras Asesores. The business was controlled by Roca and councilors and businessmen often met in their offices. Police found some files, in the power of Salvador Gardoqui, which are considered to be Roca’s secret accounts, showing the entry and exit of money, with the real estate section of the accounts showing a surplus of more than 17 million €.

In the court on Monday another one of the accused, Eusabio Sierra, admitted, following a plea bargain with the Anti-corruption Prosecutor, that he paid a 60,000 € backhander to Roca to speed up the Town Hall’s payment of a debt. His two year prison threat has now been reduced to six months as a result, which means he will escape jail by paying a fine.

The basis of Roca’s statement to the court today was that he was not in control of the Town Hall and that the now late Mayor, Jesús Gil decided absolutely everything, ‘above all in the areas of work, the economy and real estate’. Asked by the Prosecutor what his relationship was with the Marbella Town Hall, he replied that it was always via municipal companies.

However Roca did admit paying local councilors for their votes in the motion of no confidence against Julián Muñoz, and admitted to the judge that he was paid more than 3.5 million € in backhanders, which he described as ‘advice payments’ for projects developed in the town. He admitted that Construcciones Salamanca 740,000 € and said that Aifos, whose bosses are also on the accused bench, paid as much as 1.8 million €. He said that the accounting of Maras Asesores, was correct, and admitted that was the company he used to try and hide all his finances.

Three Gibraltar police have been injured after their boat was in collision with a Guardia Civil vessel in the waters off the Rock on Monday night. Spanish media say the collision took place in Spanish waters close to La Línea during a joint chase of drug traffickers who were in an inflatable craft. The fact the Gibraltar and the Spanish authorities were both chasing the drug traffickers showed that in this case there is no talk of any interference having taken place between the two. Spain has repeatedly requested clear protocols to be established to avoid accidents in situations such as this. The three men were injured as a result of the impact between the two boats, and were seriously hurt. All three had fallen into the water and were rescued by the Guardia. One man with a suspected head fracture was taken to La Linea Hospital but is now at St Bernards on the rock. The other two were taken to the Punta de Europa hospital in Algeciras where they were x-rayed and cleared of fractures. An investigation is underway and it is unclear at this stage whether the drug traffickers got away. The Royal Gibraltar Police vessel is reported to be extensively damaged, including its engines. It’s the latest of a chain of incidents between the Gibraltar Police and the Spanish Guardia Civil.

THE man charged with killing and dismembering a Ukrainian call-girl in Mijas in April last year has been found guilty. The public prosecution was asking for 14 years for manslaughter and five months for desecration of the body. Alla Mefodova, 36, disappeared in Fuengirola, and police only recovered the remains of her hands. DNA tests confirmed they belonged to her. The man confessed that he had been out drinking on the night of April 5, 2010, and enlisted the services of a call-girl who identified herself as Bianca. It was the six calls he made to her phone which led police to him. He told the police they were together at his house for several hours during which they drunk a bottle of whisky and took cocaine. He claimed they began to argue, probably about money. He says that he fell asleep and doesn’t remember how the woman died, but admitted that when he saw she was dead, he went into shock, considering calling the police or committing suicide, but that instead, he took her personal belongings and clothes and burned them. Later, he bought a saw, cut her body into pieces and put them into bags which he dumped in rubbish containers in the area. He claimed to have fainted several times in the process. The waiter from Castilla-La Mancha had no criminal record and had never been accused of violent behaviour. Just a month earlier, Alla had managed to bring her 17-year-old son to Spain, after leaving him with her mother in the Ukraine when he was just seven years old. He and a close friend reported her missing.

Hotels have become the newest and most luxurious of flaunt-able accessories.

Fashion houses, celebrities and the anonymous super rich want to own them and the rest of us just want to say we’ve stayed there.

London’s newest and most fashionable hotel bling is Whitehall’s Corinthia Hotel: a shiny new bauble of a five star property ensconced in a hallowed vintage building that once housed the UFO wing of MI6 (it’s true, I heard it from the hotel’s concierge). The heart of the hotel is the dome-covered lobby lounge, dressed to the 9′s with a “Full Moon” chandelier by Parisian designer Chafik Gasmi. You want to talk bling; this baby has over 1,001 twinkling crystals winking seductively as government officials, embassy big wigs and arm candy girlfriends sip gin and tonics or take afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches below.

Upstairs the rooms are lush, Frette linen-wrapped and full of fab extras like Hi Definition TV in the marble bathroom, super sleek electronic hook ups and my favorite: ESPA soaps, scrubs and shampoos in the walk in shower. ESPA fans will want to make a pilgrimage to the hotel just for the new ESPA Life SPA that covers four floors and includes an indoor pool, a vitality pool and–wait for it–an ice fountain.

Downstairs, the hotel’s two restaurants: Northhall and Massimo and the Bassoon Bar are abuzz with London’s Yummy Mummies, MP’s who work nearby and “Dragon’s Den”-like entrepreneurs who clearly feel the Corinthia is the fashion accessory of the moment. Dinining in Northhall is like a trip back in time to the glory days of the Empire with dishes on hand like Goosnargh Duck with Dauphinoise and Buttered Beans and St. Ives Seamed Lemon Sole with Cockles and Clams.

Notwithstanding all the shiny toys to play with, the Corinthia is grounded in luxe hotel 101: spot on service, quality product and a graciousness that reminds one of the old saying attributed to old school Ritz-Carlton staff: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”