The owner of Halcon Foods and Conservas Fernandaz, Joaquín Navarro Salinas, is facing five years in prison on fraud charges after his defence team failed to reach an agreement with the prosecution.
Salinas, also owner of the canning plant in Calasparra known as the Diosa, received a 28.6 million euro loan, for which the regional Department of Promotion stood surety, to refloat his companies and save jobs.
Now the prosecution are asking for a five year prison sentence for the alleged fraud of 35.5 million euros after Salinas refused to admit the offences.
The prosecution alleges that a considerable part of the loan was employed by the accused to finance companies he owned, such as Cofrusa, so frustrating the hope of refloating Halcon Foods in Campos del Rio and the Conservas Fernandez canning plant in Calasparra.
The prosecution further alleges that by the end of 2008 the canning group, including the aforementioned factories, were in financial difficulties producing concerns among the workforce as well as the public administrations at the prospect of losing hundreds of jobs if the problems were not resolved.
During the negotiations to try and avoid the plants closing the accused, allegedly, promised to buy and refloat the companies with the loan, which was underwritten to the extent of 80% by the region under an agreement made in 2009.
According to the prosecution, the ERE (equivalent to redundancy) was set at four million euros of which, allegedly, three million was paid, of the nine million owed to suppliers, allegedly, just 5.6 million was paid; and twelve million euros was allegedly diverted to Cofrusa.
Readers may remember months of the picket lines at the Diosa plant to try and stop the factory closing and then, later, to demand their redundancy monies. Some redundancy was eventually paid after the workers took the owner to court.
There was also an attempt by a Workers Cooperative, with the support of Calasparra Town Hall, to refinance and re-open the plant but this too failed.
The plant remains closed.
