Brothel creeper

Corruption scandal blows up for Socialist party over a hookers and kickbacks scheme

A LEADING politician went to a brothel on the day his party issued a firm condemnation of prostitution in Parliament.

PSOE deputy Juan Fuentes - or ‘Tito Berni’ as he is often known - visited Club Sombras, in Madrid, after a night out with clients, spending €150 on gin & tonics alone.

The Canary Islands politician has now become the focus of a kickbacks-for-favours scandal that has already cost him his role as a politician in the Congress of Deputies.

The so-called ‘Mediator’ case is now probing the scandal in which he and other figuresincluding a Guardia Civil boss - are accused of running a network taking bribes for political favours.

The group is accused of spending money on sex parties involving drugs, alcohol and pros- titutes, in return for favourable rulings or lucrative contracts. So far 12 people are being investigated, including at least seven businessmen. The case came to light when a series of arrests were carried out in the Canary Islands and mainland Spain, including Fuentes (right). The network is alleged to have handed businesses public contracts in exchange for kick-

A FORMER Interior Minister is facing 15 years in prison for sanctioning a police spying operation on a PP party treasurer.

Jorge Fernandez Diaz, 72, faces the charges under Operation Kitchen set up to probe his involvement into the complex espionage case that has rocked Spain’s PP party.

The former minister in Mariano Rajoy’s cabinet between 2011 to 2016 is accused of setting up an irregular police network to spy on Luis Barcenas, while he was being held in prison.

Theheat is on

Barcenas, who himself got 33 years prison in the Gurtel kickbacks-for-contracts scandal, had been hiding numerous documents that linked many former colleagues. The aim of Diaz’s operation was to seize and destroy this compromising material. He is facing charges of misuse of €60,000 of public funds, concealment of a crime and privacy offences.

backs, as well as bribing firms in the farming sector in exchange for positive inspections. It also ensured that those involved would receive payments from European

Union funding. Compromising photos of Fuentes with hookers have been published in the press, causing an outrage in the run up to International Women’s Day.

Fuentes trip to Club Sombras came as his boss, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned prostitution to coincide with International Day Against Sexual Exploitation and the Trafficking of Women and Children in September 2020.

Police also launched a campaign that day targeting men who pay for sex. A Tenerife court is now tasked to probe the scandal.