This past Wednesday, the 25th Criminal Court of Barcelona handed down the final sentence against Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and her ex-husband, Josep Santacana. Both were convicted of a crime of confiscation of assets, after having allegedly hidden and decapitalized their assets, with the intention of not paying a debt of 6 million euros with the Bank of Luxembourg, from which they requested a loan to pay off a fine of 4.5 million from the Treasury.
The former tennis player has finally been sentenced to two years in prison, while Santacana must spend three years and three months behind bars. In addition, between them they must pay compensation of 6.6 million euros to the Bank of Luxembourg. While the athlete’s lawyer expressed that Arantxa felt “satisfied” after the agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office to avoid going to jail, the other affected person did not think the same.
Sánchez Vicario’s ex-partner was seen in Barcelona this Friday morning, at which time he was intercepted by a team of reporters from Europa Press. The Catalan immediately pointed out his dissatisfaction with the judicial decision: “Well, that’s it, my lawyer has already said everything, we will appeal.” It was a reference to the words of the lawyer Juan Segarra, who, referring to the accused, did not believe that the tennis player’s sentence was lower.
“It is surprising, I think it does not reflect what was seen in the trial. Well, the judge has chosen to accept the thesis of the accusation documents, I believe that the account of proven facts is a mere transcription of the accusation documents and then places Josep as director or as the executor of the depatrimonialization plan, when “I understand that it does not correspond to the evidence that was carried out at the trial,” Segarra expressed as he left the courts this Wednesday.
“The most comfortable option is to go with the flow, to assume the accusatory thesis, because here we have encountered the Public Prosecutor’s Office, with the private accusation that was the Bank of Luxembourg, with the accusation of Arancha Sánchez Vicario, with the accusation of Hermosilla and with the accusation of the other accused who all agreed to construct an incriminating version for Mr. Santacana,” he added.
For his part, Santacana also left a blow to his ex-wife after she said she was satisfied with his sentence. “She will know, she will have justice. Totally, I feel like the bad guy in the movie. She has always done it and she will continue to do it and it has turned out well so far, so what are we going to do,” lamented the businessman, who added little else to his statements on the streets of the Catalan capital.