Francisco Correa Sánchez (born 31 October 1955) is a Spanish businessman, convicted in 2018 on charges related to the ''

Gürtel case The Gürtel case was a major political corruption scandal in Spain that implicated hundreds of officers of the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP), Spain's major Conservatism, conservative party, some of whom were subsequently forced to ...

'', a major corruption scandal. He was the leader of a network which has become known to the public as Gurtel, a designation originally coined by the police in a cryptic allusion to his surname, Correa (see note). He was sentenced to 51 years in prison. Correa began his career in the travel industry. He created a network of companies in Spain and abroad. He was arrested by the Spanish authorities in 2009 during investigations into Gurtel. Facing charges of

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

influence peddling Influence peddling, also called traffic of influence or trading in influence, is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for ...

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

tax fraud Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trust (property), trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax au ...

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

and documentary falsification, he was imprisoned on remand. He was released on bail in 2012: the judge had reduced the sum required to 200,000 euros, a reduction reflecting not only the accused's perceived ability to pay, but also the length of time he had been held on remand, which was approaching the maximum possible under Spanish law. His trial began in 2016.

Notes

:1. "Correa" can be translated into English as "belt" or in German "Gürtel".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Correa Sanchez, Francisco 1955 births Living people 20th-century Spanish businesspeople 21st-century Spanish businesspeople Spanish prisoners and detainees People named in the Paradise Papers People named in the Pandora Papers