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Cooperativa de l'Aldea Bankruptcy Trial Begins 14 Years Later

The trial for the bankruptcy of the credit section of Cooperativa Agrícola de l'Aldea begins at the Tarragona Court, with 10 defendants.

Generic image of a modern courthouse building with a stone facade.
IA

Generic image of a modern courthouse building with a stone facade.

The Tarragona Court is hosting the trial for the bankruptcy of the credit section of Cooperativa Agrícola de l'Aldea, in Baix Ebre, 14 years after the events, with 10 people accused.

Fourteen years after the bankruptcy of the credit section of Cooperativa Agrícola de l'Aldea, in Baix Ebre, the case finally reaches trial at the Tarragona Court. The oral hearing, which begins this Tuesday, will extend until the end of July and has 10 individuals as defendants.
One of the initial key points will be the ratification or not of the extrajudicial agreement reached at the end of April between Caixabank and the affected members. This pact foresees an indemnity of 3.2 million euros and could exempt from responsibility both two former employees of the Amposta branch and the banking entity, which absorbed Bankia, the initial successor of Caja Madrid, responsible for the credit section.
Both the private prosecutions, exercised by the association of affected parties and the current management of the cooperative, as well as the public prosecutor's office, have expressed their support for this agreement, according to ACN sources.
If the agreement is ratified, the main defendant will be the cooperative's former manager, for whom the Public Prosecutor's Office is seeking 14 years in prison for alleged continuous offenses of accounting falsification, falsification of commercial documents, wilful insolvency, and disloyal administration. He is also being claimed for civil liability exceeding 1.6 million euros.
According to the public ministry, the former manager allegedly requested a loan from Bankia backed by the cooperative's financial assets and subsequently blocked these assets to guarantee the repayment of a mortgage loan of 1.64 million subscribed in 2008, money that supposedly never reached the entity.
Also accused is the head of an auditing firm, for whom the prosecutor's office is seeking 7 years and 3 months in prison for accounting falsification and a continuous offense of disloyal administration for inflating the valuation of the assets. The rest of the defendants, suppliers to the cooperative, face prison sentences of less than two years.
The bankruptcy of the credit section occurred on December 1, 2011, leaving 408 members without access to their savings and an economic deficit of 4.6 million euros.
The trial, which includes 293 scheduled witnesses, mostly affected depositors, is expected to last until the end of July. The number of witnesses could be significantly reduced if the withdrawal of charges against Caixabank and some former employees is confirmed.

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