Former mayor of Seville, Antonio Torres, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison for receiving nearly €360,000 in salary from the Faffe Foundation (an institution of the Junta de Andalucía) without ever having worked there. The agency’s former director general, Fernando Villén, also received a three-year and six-month sentence for feigning an employment relationship and illegally entering into the contract “out of friendship and political affinity.” This was stated in a ruling published Wednesday by the Third Chamber of the Seville Court. The chamber found that Torres “did not go to the foundation’s headquarters and did not perform any work.”
In addition to the prison sentence, the former mayor must also be disqualified from public office for four years, as he is considered an accomplice to a crime of embezzlement. He will also be barred from holding any employment or public office for a further four years due to a crime of subterfuge. In the case of the former director of Faffe, the sentence includes six years of absolute disqualification for embezzlement of public funds and seven years of special disqualification from employment or public office for a crime of subterfuge. This is in accordance with the simple mitigating circumstance of unreasonable delay, according to a press release from the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA).
Both defendants are jointly and severally liable to compensate the Junta de Andalucía €359,973.51, which is the amount the former mayor received from the time of his employment until the termination of his contract. This amount was transferred to the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE) after his integration into the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE), as stipulated in the judgment, which is not yet final and can be appealed to the TSJA.
According to the list of established facts, Antonio Torres lost the mayoralty of Lebrija in the 2003 municipal elections and subsequently approached Fernando Villén to request a position. Villén agreed to this under the pretext of acquiring funds and financial resources from various administrations for Faffe, even though this was “unnecessary,” as Faffe was already financed with public funds through numerous training subsidies.
The judges confirmed that there is no evidence that the former mayor exercised any management duties related to his position. Therefore, he was never responsible for the financial aspects of the foundation and could not demonstrate that he possessed the necessary skills to assume and perform the corresponding tasks. Furthermore, from the outset, he demanded a permanent position and imposed his working conditions, to which the former director of Faffe agreed.
“Since the foundation’s administrative organizational chart did not provide for a position for Antonio Torres,” the former head of Faffe created “an ad hoc position, which he boastfully called the Directorate of External Relations.” However, according to the judges, this department did not exist, had no headquarters, office, or affiliated staff. In fact, “the defendant did not go to the foundation’s headquarters and did not perform any work.”
The Third Chamber found that the former mayor “nevertheless received a business card containing his personal information, as well as the foundation’s name, position, and logo, featuring the Junta de Andalucía emblem.” This suggests that the defendant was “not subject to any higher hierarchical or functional dependency” than the former director of Faffe.
According to the judges, Antonio Torres “was never integrated into the foundation’s steering committee or organizational structure,” did not attend any meetings, and was unknown to the other employees and managers.
Antonio Torres was hired on July 1, 2003, with a fixed-term contract, which was converted into a permanent contract on December 1, 2004. He had the status of manager and received a salary of over €40,000 per year, which led to him being registered as an employee of Faffe until the foundation’s dissolution and his integration into the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE) on May 3, 2011.
The “sparse work” Antonio Torres performed to justify his salary consisted of contacting a politician, but always from home and using his own resources. He didn’t even have an email account linked to Faffe.
The judges consider that Antonio Torres was hired “at the request” of Fernando Villén, “out of his own free will, friendship, and political affinity.” was appointed without the candidate’s suitability being assessed or challenged. The contract was executed “unfairly and arbitrarily, in violation of the recruitment procedures to which Faffe was required to comply, without any consent from other potential candidates for the position, and contrary to the general principles of publicity, objectivity, impartiality, equal opportunity, merit, and ability that should govern this selection and recruitment process.”
Antonio Torres’ position and functions were unknown to other employees “since he did not perform his work at any of Faffe’s headquarters.” The court adds that “there is no documentary evidence demonstrating minimum compliance with the requirements and budgets governing the selection and recruitment of personnel, whether technical or managerial, by a public foundation such as Faffe.”
According to the Third Chamber of the Provincial Court of Seville, the former mayor “contributed to these illegal contracts by providing elements that could create the appearance of legality and by colluding with Fernando Villén to implement these unlawful contracts.” “The award of contracts is illegal and based on an arbitrary decision adopted with the intention of derogating from the principles of merit and ability to pay,” the judges emphasize, noting that “this form of public procurement is illegal because it falls outside any norm.”
The judges point out that the former director of Faffe acted arbitrarily by “bringing together like-minded individuals.” In Antonio Torres’s case, the aim was simply to provide him with an “economic advantage,” which led to the “diversion of funds from subsidies and the impoverishment of the public treasury.” “Antonio Torres didn’t go to work, but received the money,” they emphasize, which they consider “a blatant disregard for the administrative legality that governs the actions of both defendants.”
The Andalusian Foundation for Training and Employment (Faffe), under the leadership of Fernando Villén, became a source of public funding for various forms of corruption. It enabled dozens of individuals linked to the PSOE and their families to receive public salaries. The foundation also served to circumvent controls and pump millions of public euros into affiliated companies at will. Furthermore, its accounts also covered expenses for parties, meals, travel, and even visits to brothels run by the general manager.
Fernando Villén was sentenced to six years in prison in September 2023 for using public funds to settle bills at several nightclubs. To avoid being “discovered,” the ruling stated, “the director of Faffe had no qualms about falsifying the company’s accounts,” thus implicating the company’s financial director through the “influence” he exerted over him.
Fernando Villén, who served as Minister of Labor in the executive branch of the Andalusian PSOE, served as president under José Antonio Griñán from the institution’s founding in 2003, during Manuel Chaves’s term as president, until the institution’s dissolution in 2011, when its employees were integrated into the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE).
