The court also sentenced eleven other defendants from the former leadership of the Galician food group to terms of between six months and three and a half years in prison, according to a sentence known Tuesday.

 

“The proven facts of the sentence relate how, as a result of the financial crisis that began to be detected in 2008, the president of the entity, in order to continue to enjoy the bank financing on which Pescanova depended for the investment effort exerted in previous years, he planned, together with a group of people he trusted (...) to continue to obtain financing through a series of mechanisms or irregular financing practices, ”the high court said in the 610-page ruling.

 

In addition, the National Court has condemned Pescanova SA, which continues to trade but capitalizes only 10 million euros on the Spanish stock market, as legal persons, and its former auditor BDO to fines and compensation that in some cases reaches more than 51 million euros "For the amounts that some of the investors ended up losing."

 

Specifically, three and a half years have been imposed on Santiago Sañé, the auditor of the BDO firm who between 2009 and 2012 signed the accounting reports, endorsing "without exceptions, how many operations carried out" the Pescanova parent company "violating the accounting standards and allowing you to give an image of your economic and financial situation "that had nothing to do with reality. BDO has announced that it will appeal the ruling.

 

Pescanova, one of the leading companies in Galicia, had to file for bankruptcy in 2013, after surfacing debts in excess of 3,600 million euros and a equity hole of almost 1,700 million euros.

 

After the crisis, the well-known Galician company of frozen products was refloated under the name of Nueva Pescanova, a non-listed company under the control of the creditor banks of Pescanova.

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