THE president of the Alicante Chamber of Commerce, Carlos Baño, has been arrested for alleged corruption by the Policia Nacional.
Baño was detained on Friday as part of a probe by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office into consumer voucher campaigns carried out in 2022 and 2023 in 20 municipalities across Alicante Province.
The voucher scheme was set up by Alicante Provincial Council to help increase household spending and counter the negative economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The Council president at the time was Carlos Mazon who became Valencia president in 2023 and who Baño described as ‘being like his brother’.
The Provincial Council allocated €58 million between 2022 and 2024 to the initiative which offered a 50% discount to purchases in participating local businesses.
The investigation revolves around a potential fraud in the management of public money used for the voucher scheme and whether Facpyme– the Alicante Province small and medium-sized employers business federation- was involved.
Besides being president of the Alicante Chamber of Commerce, Carlos Baño also chairs Facpyme which is a non-profit organisation.
The probe has been looking into whether he benefited by running the voucher scheme via a third-party company.
Police raided several organisations that managed the vouchers including the Facpyme headquarters on Calle Orenes and a near-by storage room on Calle del Arzobispo Loaces.
There has been no suggestion of anything untoward in regard to the Alicante Chamber of Commerce.
Carlos Baño had been due to take part in a presentation on Friday morning of the Chamber’s Tourism Sector Report.
Attendees were told that Baño was not there for ‘agenda’ reasons and a deputy, Eva Miñano, apologised for his non-presence due to ‘an unforeseen event’.
The Socialist Group on Alicante Provincial Council said they will request the convening of an extraordinary plenary session and the creation of a commission of inquiry to clarify everything related to the management of the voucher programme.
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