Paco Sanz: The man who swindled thousands of people by pretending to have 2,000 tumors accepts two years in prison society

Paco Sanz, known as the man of the 2,000 tumors, has accepted a two-year prison sentence after admitting he swindled thousands of people by simulating a terminal illness. The defendant, who reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office at the beginning of the trial that began this Monday, managed to raise more than 264,780 euros from people, including several celebrities, who believed they were helping to pay for treatment. experimental in the United States. According to the police investigation, he spent that money on shopping, travel and even a cruise.

At the beginning of the trial, in the Provincial Court of Madrid, the defense of Paco Sanz -Francisco José Sanz González de Martos- and the Public Ministry have negotiated and reached an agreement regarding the sentence, although not with regard to civil liability on each of those affected, so the process continues. Thus, the Prosecutor’s Office has reduced his request for imprisonment from six years in prison to two plus a fine of 2,600 euros (nine months, at a rate of eight euros per day), while the sentence for Lucía Carmona, then girlfriend of Sanz, it will be one year and nine months instead of three years. Sanz’s mother, Maria de l’Carmen González, was also accused of being a for-profit manager. The father was prosecuted, but died last May. Only the possible civil liability of the defendants will be resolved in the trial. The accusations have been in line with the prosecution’s request.

Sanz was diagnosed with Cowden Syndrome in 2009, which is a rare genetic disease responsible for causing multiple non-cancerous tumors in various parts of the body, with no imminent life-threatening risks. The prosecutor reports that the defendant, showing that he had only a few months left in his life, managed to raise 264,780 euros in seven years by asking for financial aid through social media and the media to try to get experimental treatment in the States. Units. The defendant, who received an absolute disability pension of 745.99 euros, ordered a plan to obtain an illicit patrimonial profit between 2010 and February 2017. With messages such as ” I do my best to save the my life and the only experimental option is in the United States. Thanks to people like you, I will be able to continue with the treatment, maybe cure myself, or maybe even find a cure that can help others, “he managed to move thousands of people, including comedian José Mota or the television presenter Jordi Javier Vázquez, who helped spread his cause.

Sanz arrived at the courts around 9.45 am next to his lawyer, without making any statements to the press, with a lost look and visibly disoriented. He has told the court that to cure his illness, he traveled 10 to 12 times to the United States for a clinical trial that had no medical costs. These trips cost between 6,000 and 8,000 euros per trip and, due to his meager pension, he had to ask for help. “I received between 8,000 and 10,000 euros from family and friends, but I don’t know how much money I received from third parties,” he admitted. He also received 500 euros for a book that was published about his illness.

The defendant has only answered questions from his lawyer, although he has answered his ex-partner’s lawyer to make it clear that she “knew nothing.” For her part, Lucía Carmona has stated that she met Sanz in 2014 and, although they had not seen each other in person at the time, she helped him raise money so that he could be healed. When they started a relationship in 2017, Paco opened a bank account in Valencia of which Carmona was the holder but, according to her account, she only used it four times to transfer 200 euros in each operation, but because it was money his. “I didn’t touch a penny of the donation money,” he stressed, and confessed that he knew nothing more about this account being handled by his partner. Carmona said that because she lived in Seville and he in Valencia, they could only be seen on four occasions.

Neither Sanz nor Carmona have made any statements since leaving the courts, but its lawyer, Alberto Martín, has insisted that he is “innocent” and has only accepted the agreement “to eliminate risks”, for “responsibility”. The lawyer explained that there are parties who can apply for up to 27 years in the case of a crime of continuous fraud, and that with the agreed sentence, his client will not go to jail. Martin has argued that Carmona, who was 17 when she met Paco Sanz, is a “victim,” who “always acted in good faith” in believing what he told her because she was absolutely in love.

In order to give more publicity to his alleged condition, Sanz contacted several actors and television presenters, such as comedian Santi Rodríguez, who organized a charity gala in Valencia on May 30, 2013, an event in the which came to raise 3,000 euros in tickets. That same year the writer Miguel Hervás Abad published the book Paco Sanz, a life of dreams, a life of struggle, with the prologue and epilogue written by youtuber Auronplay and former professional athlete Pedro García Aguado, respectively. Sales of the book amounted to 2,184 euros, with 364 copies sold.

Under the pretext of funding the alleged treatment, he created a website in 2010 in which he exaggerated the symptoms of his disease, claiming that he was suffering from “genetic cancer”, or that he had “a few months of life left”. On this website, I posted messages of the “I’m ashamed to ask for money” type. He even gave the possibility of being given money by sending a solidarity SMS at a cost of 1.45 euros to the number 25600 with the word Paco, or also the possibility of giving amounts through his PayPal account.

During the investigation, police confiscated 17 videos in which the defendant was seen mocking his donors. The swindled people paid him the money mostly by bank transfer. Sanz was arrested in La Pobla de Vallbona (Valencia) on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and misappropriation. In some discarded scenes from the recording, Sanz appears joking about the “piggy bank oxygen,” in reference to the donations he received, or playing with a hospital probe with his mother dancing in the background.

The trial will continue this Tuesday, with the statement as witnesses of the former water polo player Pedro García Aguado, known for the television program Big Brother; the comedian Santi Rodríguez; the writer Alejandro Ruiz Hurtado, author of the book Thus fell Paco Sanz, actor Ignacio Guerrers and photographer Roberto Pere Roca, among others. Singers Ramón Melendi and Charo Reina, TV presenters Risto Mejide and Dani Mateo, have resigned. youtuber Auronplay and Cadiz footballer Álvaro Negredo, without prejudice to the compensation and other effects of the sentence that may correspond to them.

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