Manuel Bustos, former head of the Sabadell city hall and the Federación de Municipios de Cataluña (FMC), has accepted the verdict in a case concerning the misuse of organizational funds. He was sentenced to six months in prison, but the sentence will be suspended if he does not commit any offenses within the next three years. At the center of the charges were Bustos’s personal expenses, which he paid for with FMC funds—primarily restaurant bills totaling over 5,000 euros.
Initially, the case was regarded as part of a larger investigation known as the ‘Mercurio case’ (caso Mercurio). Alongside Bustos, his wife, the former FMC secretary, and the director of a private foundation were also on trial. All the defendants pleaded guilty and repaid the misappropriated funds, which allowed them to reach an agreement with the prosecution for minimal sentences and avoid actual jail time.
Details of the charges
The court found that from January 2011 to October 2012, Bustos systematically charged personal expenses to FMC accounts by abusing his official position. The total amount spent for private purposes was 5,565 euros, mostly on restaurant bills unrelated to the organization’s activities. For these actions, the former mayor also received a 13-month ban on holding public office.
Bustos’s wife, who served as a communications adviser at FMC during that period, admitted to charging 252 euros in personal expenses to the organization. She agreed to a 23-day suspended sentence and a 550-euro fine.
The role of the FMC and the court’s position
The Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC) is an organization mainly funded by government resources and tasked with public functions. However, the Supreme Court of Spain previously ruled that FMC funds are not considered entirely public, which influenced the outcome of several abuse cases involving the organization. In 2016, for example, charges against more than 40 former and current mayors suspected of receiving undue payments were dropped.
In the current case, Bustos, the former secretary of the FMC, along with the head of the private ACSAR foundation, were found guilty of misappropriating 24,000 euros under a 2011 contract. The funds were used to pay the director of Casal latino de Sabadell, an entity linked to the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC).
Mitigating circumstances
Prosecutors initially sought a two-year prison sentence for Bustos. However, after full restitution of the funds and a confession of guilt, the court took into account several mitigating factors. These included Bustos’s existing disqualification for other episodes of the “Mercury” case and the fact that since 2013 he no longer serves as mayor of Sabadell. As a result, the punishment was limited to the minimum term, which will not be enforced if there are no further violations.
New court proceedings
This is not the end of the legal battles for Bustos. In June 2026, a new trial is set to begin on another part of the “Mercurio” case, involving alleged illegal appointments within the waste management consortium Vallès Occidental. This time, the former mayor faces up to eight years in prison and a 12-year ban from public office.
Joining him in the dock will be his brother Francisco Bustos, who previously headed the local PSC branch, and the consortium’s former manager, Paco Fernández. They face various terms of imprisonment and disqualification. Thus, the story of corruption schemes within Catalonia’s municipal structures continues to unfold, with the defendants remaining closely watched by the courts.
