The former socialist mayor of Sabadell (Barcelona) Manuel Bustos has accepted a six-month prison sentence, which he will not serve if he does not commit another offense within three years, for having invoiced the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC), which he chaired, more than 5,000 euros in private expenses, notably in restaurants.
Bustos was to be tried today for embezzlement before a popular jury of the Barcelona court, with his wife, then secretary of the FMC and director of a private foundation, for one of the pieces of the Mercury casealthough an agreement was finally reached, with minimum prison sentences, which will be suspended if they do not reoffend, once the accused have returned the money.
Concretely, Bustos, who was also sentenced to 13 months of ban, admitted that, abusing his functions as president of the FMC, between January 2011 and October 2012, he had “continuously and fraudulently” invoiced this municipal entity for private expenses, notably meals in restaurants, for a total value of 5,565 euros.
His wife, who then worked as a communications advisor at the FMC, received a sentence of 23 days in prison and a fine of 550 euros, for having charged 252 euros in personal expenses.
The decision emphasizes that the FMC is a public law body which exercises public functions and is financed almost entirely by public funds.
However, in 2016, the Supreme Court approved the decision of the Barcelona Court to archive a case in which more than 40 mayors and former mayors of the FMC were indicted for the bonuses they allegedly received hidden in daily allowances, finding that there was no embezzlement because the funds received and managed by this entity are not public.
In this case, Bustos, then secretary of the FMC and president of the private ACSAR Foundation, were also convicted for an agreement they signed in 2011 for a value of 24,000 euros, which they used fraudulently to hire the head of Casal Latino de Sabadell, linked to the PSC.
Bustos, for whom the prosecution requested two years for this case, has already returned the embezzled sum, like the others, so that, with the very nuanced mitigating circumstance of excessive delays – because the investigation began more than ten years ago – they agreed on minimum prison sentences, which were also suspended if they do not reoffend.
In fact, the Court agreed to suspend the sentences based, for example, on the fact that Bustos is disqualified for other reasons linked to the “Mercury case” and that since 2013 he no longer holds the office of mayor of Sabadell.
New trial in 2026
But Manuel Bustos is awaiting new trials for other parts of the Mercurio case. The closest will begin next June and corresponds to part 31, relating to the alleged irregular hiring of people linked to the PSC within the organization chart of the Vallès Occidental Waste Consortium. On this occasion, the former mayor faces a request for a sentence of eight years in prison and 12 years of ban, according to the Sabadell Platform for corruption, no one in the file. His brother Francisco Bustos, former head of the region’s PSC, who is sentenced to five years in prison and five years of disqualification, and Paco Fernández, former director of the Consortium, who faces 12 years of disqualification, will also sit on the bench.
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