The anti-corruption prosecution service will seek a sentence of eight and a half years for Bartolomé Cursach of the Grupo Cursach, which runs - among other establishments - BCM in Magalluf and Mega Park in Arenal. The sentence being sought is in respect of charges of belonging to a criminal organisation, bribery, threats and prevarication. Cursach would also be disqualified from being a company director for fifteen years.
The prosecution's demands relate to the large trial of Cursach and 23 others. These include Palma police officers. Two prosecutors, Miquel Ángel Subirán and Juan Carrau, argue that between 2000 and 2016 Cursach and his subordinates systematically bribed civil servants at Palma town hall and Palma police officers. The supply of gifts, the prosecutors state, implied the exchange of favours for Grupo Cursach businesses.
These gifts ranged from Christmas hampers, cases of champagne, free passes for the Megasport gym and cash to sexual services and drugs that were supplied in some establishments. Specific reference is made to parties at Tito's nightclub in Palma, where the services of prostitutes were allegedly offered to police officers.
The prosecution plans calling 142 witnesses, many of them businesspeople from the hospitality sector in Magalluf and Palma. The drugs baron El Ico will be called as will two protected witnesses, one of them the "madame", who supposedly oversaw prostitute parties.
Among the other 23 are Bartolomé Sbert, who was Cursach's right-hand man. The prosecution is seeking the same eight and a half year sentence for him. There are demands for longer sentences, one of these being nine years for the director of Tito's, Jaime Lladó, who is accused of bribery and offences against public health. The longest, ten and a half years, is for Miguel Estarellas, now retired and once of the Palma police's Green Patrol.
The former director-general of tourism, Pilar Carbonell, is also among the 23. She faces ten years disqualification from public office (no prison sentence) for having acted on behalf of Grupo Cursach from the time she worked at Calvia town hall and also at the ministry. She is charged with prevarication. The Spanish legal use of this term doesn't have a straightforward meaning in English, but in Carbonell's case it would have to do with an abuse of public office.