CAM boss charged with fiddling expenses
By Alex Watkins EX-president of the CAM savings bank, Modesto Crespo has been charged with alleged undue appropriation of €300,000 in expenses.
Judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez has opened a separate investigation from the main case against the directors of the old Alicante-based savings bank (caja de ahorros). He will consider the anti-corruption prosecutor's request to also charge the 19 members of the administrative board who apparently approved these expenses at a board meeting in November 2009.
Sr Crespo, an Elche car dealership owner and prominent Partido Popular (PP) supporter, was appointed by the CAM as president of the holding company Tinser Cartera, which was entirely owned by the savings bank.
Even though the company never held any board meetings, Sr Crespo was awarded €300,000 in backdated expenses for the last two quarters of that year.
A Bank of Spain report says he received a total of €640,000 for the position between 2009 and 2011.
It also alleges he used his position in other companies part-owned by the CAM to bolster his income until the savings bank was bailed out by the government in 2011. Sr Crespo also faces charges in the main branch of the case, for alleged corporate crimes, fraud and manipulation of prices.
The prosecutor has supplied the court with minutes of the meeting that appear to show the board did approve Sr Crespo's expenses.
However several board members have denied giving their approval.
Raquel Páez, who was on the board until 2010, told CBNews it was 'ridiculous' to believe they would have approved the expenses without a single voice of dissent.
She explained that the board of all savings banks legally had to include some political appointments, as well as ordinary customers of the CAM like her who were chosen by lottery.
"We did not have the training or experience to understand all the bank's activities but were expected to approve investments that had already been evaluated by the CAM's own risks department," she said.
Sra Páez noted the political appointments included a few representatives from left-wing parties, who 'would always present objections but be voted down by the PP-supporting majority'.
"Even the different factions within the PP always argued with each other so there is no way that if those expenses