The accusations of alleged fraud against the president of the Agricultural Cooperative San Isidro (CASI), José María Andújar, and its manager, Antonio González García, have been declared admissible by Almeria's number 1 Court of first instance. The statement reporting alleged "improper management and misappropriation", presented by one of CASI's members on 10 February and modified by the judge to "fraud", accuses the president of "obtaining a profit of over 200,000 Euro by applying surcharges to tomatoes from his plantation and marketing them through the cooperative."
The accuser explains that clients of the cooperative purchasing Cocktail tomatoes during the previous campaign (2012/2013) "paid an average net price of 0.77 Euro/kilo." His statement, however, points out that Andújar "received an average of 1.45 Euro/kilo from the sales of this variety."
With the lawsuit already presented and published, CASI defended itself by deeming the accusation "a smear campaign against the cooperative, its president and the managing board, with the only goal of unsettling some associates before an imminent meeting and without any consideration for the potential damage to CASI's image."
CASI states that the accuser is the brother-in-law of the previous president, Francisco Belmonte, who is part of a minority group led by former board members. "An alleged first page of the lawsuit's document was shared via Whatsapp, without adhering to the established channels and timeframes to allow all associates to be informed before the upcoming meeting. Additionally, the average compensation to associates has increased by 24.5% in the past three years, according to data audited by the international consulting entity. PriceWaterhouseCoopers."