A judge has ordered the prosecution of the former president of the San Isidro Agricultural Cooperative (CASI) José María Andújar, and of the former manager Antonio González, after determining that there is sufficient evidence of losses caused during their management between the years 2012 and 2014, amounting to more than 1.2 million Euro, due to fraudulent transactions in the marketing of tomatoes of the cocktail variety. In light of the evidence, the magistrate also concluded that Andújar, "taking advantage of his position and, in some cases, for his personal benefit," charged expenses to the agricultural cooperative, "causing a loss of €119,453.44."
Both defendants have been accused of alleged fraud offences and the ex-president of CASI has also been charged with alleged misappropriation. According to the head of the Court of Instruction 1 of Almería, Andújar and González, "by common accord and taking advantage of their positions in the entity, they have given authorisation for the production of tomatoes of the cocktail variety only to some members of the cooperative with the aim of illicit profit. This would have also been an infringement of CASI's rules, which establish that the production of a given product chosen by growers within the cooperative should not be limited."
Judge María Belén López points out that, in the 2012-2013 campaign, they assigned the tomato variety a purchase price to cooperatives of 1.53 Euro per kilo, while the average selling price of the tomatoes stood at 1.17 Euro per kilo. In the same line, in the 2013-2014 campaign, they agreed on a purchase price of the cocktail variety of 1.24 Euro per kilo, with an average selling price of 1.27 Euro per kilo. The resolution states that, according to an expert assessment issued by the Association of Andalusian Appraisers, this practice would have caused a loss of 315,420.50 Euro in 2012-2013.
Source: www.elalmeria.es
