Marco Borriello has doubled the bet. The former Italian footballer, investigated for the alleged crime of planning against the territory from reforms that he has made in his luxury villa in es Cubells, not only finds futile the arguments that the Prosecutor’s Office has wielded against him. He also seeks to legalize the property, taking refuge, with incredible arguments, in the urban amnesty decreed by the Govern.
Leaving the Court of Instruction number 3 of Ibiza, Víctor Soriano, Borriello’s lawyer, emphasized two points for which the accusation should be dismissed. On the one hand, he pointed out that the Prosecutor’s accusation is based on an illegal search of the property. On the other hand, he said that the property, which is currently rented, can be legalized based on the parameters of Decree Law 3/2024.
The case
According to a court ruling dated March 14, 2024, Borriello carried out several works without the corresponding permits and invading environmentally protected areas. Among the works carried out were the construction of a swimming pool, a stairway leading to the sea, improvements to the garden, a parking lot and other modifications to the villa known as Villa Margherite. All these works had a total value of 460,348.48 euros. As a result of this, the Consell de Ibiza set a fine of 1,265,958 euros. However, the sanctioning procedure was suspended when the judicial process was initiated. According to the insular organism in its report, these refurbishments are not legalizable through the urban amnesty.
Defense
“There can be no criminal liability because the Balearic regulations allow the legalization of this house. We are in the process of legalization and this procedure would have to be archived,” said Soriano, Borriello’s lawyer at the doors of the Court of Instruction number 3 of Ibiza, where he attended the statements of two builders cited by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. In that line, he has defended that they are “fully legalizable” works because “they would already be prescribed” according to the terms of the urban amnesty. Thus, it contradicts the statements of the Consell. However, it does not contemplate the fact that the works have a file, and at the same time that the works are in protected land (to be prescribed, they should be works prior to 1991). On the other hand, Soriano has said that the Prosecutor’s Office “is exploiting an illegal inspection that was made by the Consell Insular in the year 2021 in the house of Don Marco”. According to the lawyer, the inspection was made “entering illegally” in the house without authorization of the property or the inhabitants to “obtain photographs even of interior rooms and documents that were in them”. “What the Prosecutor’s Office is doing is knowing that all this is the fruit of the poisoned tree and that it has no route or instruction in the trial”, he has questioned, and has denounced that the Prosecutor’s Office seeks to turn this procedure into a “macro cause that already stretches four years only because Mr. Marco Borriello is a public figure”. The ex-footballer represented the Italian national team seven times. In his country, he played for top teams such as Milan (with whom he won a Serie A title and a Champions League) and Juventus (with whom he also celebrated a scudetto). In 2019 he retired wearing the shirt of UD Ibiza.
