Pilar Bonet, who resigned as the Council of Mallorca's finance councillor in February 2024, will be handed a two and a half year sentence for embezzlement of €2,177,200.80 from Llucmajor-based travel company Globalia, the owners of Air Europa.
This sentence is understood to have been agreed by prosecution and defence lawyers ahead of a trial at Palma's Provincial Court. She will plead guilty to charges of fraud and document falsification and will have to pay a fine of €1,260 and pay back the embezzled amount.
The agreement will greatly expedite the trial process; it can be wrapped up in fifteen minutes. As the sentence is above two years, prison time will have to be served. It is common for sentences of two years or less to be suspended. This said, the pre-trial investigation has proven that she suffers from a shopping addiction for which she is undergoing treatment.
It has also been proven that the misappropriation of company funds lasted for at least twelve years. Money was diverted to bank accounts she controlled and false invoices were raised. She managed to evade internal controls until an internal audit uncovered the massive fraud. By this time, in 2023, she had been appointed finance councillor by the new administration at the Council of Mallorca, she having been part-time councillor for finance at Llucmajor Town Hall from 2019 to 2023.
The Council of Mallorca has not commented on the case, considering it to be a private matter.