Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- The sole administrator of Integral Canarian Security since August 2012, Héctor de Armas, assured this Wednesday before the Court of Las Palmas that paying overtime as allowances was part of the “DNA” of the company and the rest of the companies of businessman Miguel Ángel Ramírez.
In the eighth session of the trial that is being followed against De Armas and Ramírez as alleged perpetrators of crimes against the Public Treasury and Social Security, the one who was the sole administrator of SIC since 2012 although he started working for the company in 2009, has shown his regret for not having informed the Prosecutor’s Office “when he became aware” of this practice, which at first seemed normal in the private surveillance sector.
He explained that the company’s actions appeared to be legitimate because debt recognition agreements were reached with the deputy director of Social Security in Madrid for the per diems that SIC paid to its workers, and that it was as a result of the Treasury Inspection that took place in 2012 that he “became aware” and “his alarm went off”, although Ramírez, who has previously testified in court, has denied this point and has said that overtime was paid separately.
The per diems that were paid to the workers corresponded to overtime “without any kind of ambiguity”, as I said in the instruction and “it was known by all” in Integral Security, stressed De Armas, who has said that with his testimony he does not intend to harm anyone but he does not want to be harmed by a maneuver that Ramírez “designed: I get out of the way and here is the fool.”
De Armas, who has answered all the questions raised by the Economic Crimes Prosecutor and the other three accusations, as well as those raised by the defenses, except that of Ramírez, has explained that he assumed the responsibility of sole administrator in SIC when its owner was convicted of an environmental crime and the State Contract Law prevented him from competing in public tenders.
Regarding the structure of SIC, he has detailed that it was controlled by the Ramírez family; His father was the director of the company, a cousin was the head of operations and another was in charge of preparing the payroll and putting the “ok” to operations that had the approval of the also president of UD Las Palmas, even when he was no longer acting as sole administrator.
He explained that the workers received two monthly payments, their payroll and another, which were allowances and included not only overtime, which were necessary to provide the contracted services, but also the “gratuities” that they paid to those who Ramírez understood deserved it and to the “people of his Swiss guard”.
Among those who received these bonuses included as allowances was his father, “who, if he ever traveled, went to Tenerife” and when he wanted to end that payment system and normalize the situation, the “bodyguard revealed himself” and “Ramírez overthrew the order”.
As for the information required by the Treasury after the inspection carried out and referring to the years 2008 and 2009, it was an attempt to “find the formula to make sense of what the inspector” and had to “produce documents that justify” the more than 8 million per diems paid by the company in each of those years, said de Armas, who indicated that at that time he was on medical leave because he had suffered a heart attack, the first, since he later had two others.
Ramírez was the one who “directed and gave the orders directly and expressly”, although he was the sole administrator, stressed De Armas, who indicated that he also had a password to access the system that was contracted with the Freematica company to computerize payroll, accounting and schedules, starting in 2012, when he tried to bring “order” to the company and improve its management, despite the fact that he had a “permanent boycott to mechanize the schedules”.
“Despite what Ramírez said in his statement” this Wednesday, “he dispatched everyone” and was the one who “did and executed” in Integral Security, stressed De Armas, who added that it “hurts him humanly that without wrinkling a muscle in his face (Ramírez) lied this morning”, when he also said it in the program that Sixth Television dedicated to him for being “the king of private security”.
According to Héctor de Armas, it was Ramírez himself who agreed with the works council, apart from the unions, both the agreement to drop the sectoral agreement and the second own agreement that he approved, and although in his statement he said that it was a “brilliant idea”, it was he who decided and was already preparing it before the Labor Reform regulations of the Government of Rajoy were published.
Regarding the presentation of SIC’s bankruptcy, despite the fact that Ramírez has assured the court that it was De Armas’s decision, he has indicated that, on the contrary, it started from the owner of Seguridad Integral, since he maintained that the company could still be saved.
As for the clauses he signed when he bought the company in 2018, in which he assumed that he had made all the decisions and directed the company during his time as sole administrator, he has stated that he was “betrayed” by his lawyer, Sergio Armario, who drew up the purchase contract and whom he trusted.
For this reason, he has filed a complaint with the Bar Association, commented De Armas, who in defense of his “honorability” has clarified that it is false that he took money from the Bank of Spain’s vaults, and that the complaints filed by Ramírez are archived. He has admitted that he only took 70,000 euros to pay the workers when they were going through moments of “misery”.
The trial will continue this Thursday with the reports and conclusions of the defenses and the accusations. EFE