The Court of Madrid sentenced the former presenter of Belén Esteban, Toño Sanchís (Madrid, 52 years old) to two years in prison, deeming it demonstrated that he had taken advantage of the “full trust” of the television collaborator to charge her for years a higher commission than the agreed one, embezzling over 400,000 euros. In the resolution of this Monday 24 November, to which the Efe agency had access, the magistrates also condemn Sanchís to a fine of 2,100 euros and to compensate Belén Esteban with a sum that will be determined later, in execution of the sentence.
This amount will be calculated by subtracting from the 475,571 euros unduly allocated (which is the amount that the sentence considers definitively proven) the 49,000 euros that Esteban has already collected in a previous civil trial and the money actually received for the assignment of a house in that same previous trial. On that occasion, Sanchís’ agency, Agencia de Servicios Lorant SL, was ordered to pay Esteban a total of 388,868 euros, but only received part of it in cash and 375,000 euros for the award of a house with a mortgage of over 200,000 euros, in the Madrid town of Villanueva del Pardillo, which it then sold. The television collaborator then decided to start the trial which went to trial in October and whose sentence has now been issued.
The ruling of the fourth section of the Madrid hearing considers it proven that, between 13 May 2009 and December 2015 – the year in which Esteban interrupted the employment relationship with Sanchís after having noticed alleged irregularities in his accounts -, the accused received almost 400,000 euros “as a consequence of the application of a commission higher than 20% provided for in the contract” signed between his representation agency and the Belén company. Stephen. “The trust that Ms. Belén Esteban had in the accused Mr. Sanchís García was total, so much so that Ms. Esteban did not monitor the correctness of the calculations of the agreed percentage, limiting herself to receiving the amounts that were paid to her, until she discovered irregularities in 2015,” reads the sentence. The resolution states that the relationship Esteban had with Sanchís was one of “close friendship,” which is why she “neglected her affairs, placing them completely in the hands of the defendant.”
At the trial, the Prosecutor’s Office accused Sanchís of continuous embezzlement, committed between 2009 and 2015, a crime for which he requested three and a half years of imprisonment and which he will compensate Esteban with the money not yet returned (which he calculated at 339,549 euros). For his part, the lawyer of the complainant, Carlos Aguirre de Cárcer, of Santiago Mediano Abogados, asked for four and a half years of imprisonment for the accused and compensation of 475,571 euros, since this is the figure established by the reports drawn up.
For his part, the defense lawyer asked for free acquittal, arguing that Sanchís did not commit the crime of which he is accused, as the accused defended during the testimony at the trial, in which he said that Belén Esteban knew that the commission had increased and knew what he had signed and received. In his brief statement on October 20, he only responded to questions from his lawyer, and said his wife created Agencia de Servicios Lorant SL in 2000 and he was a 50% partner. He also explained that he stuck to the artistic representation and “decided absolutely nothing else.”
