The National audience has issued the provisional dismissal and subsequent archiving of the investigation of the so-called case of the wheelwhich affected several partners of the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE) and 14 televisions, including EiTBmore than eight years after the first complaints about alleged fraud in the collection of copyrights.
The order signed by the judge Ismael Morenohead of the investigating court number 2 of the National audienceindicates that “there are not sufficient indications” that prove that those investigated have committed the crimes charged and that the Prosecutor’s Office had requested the dismissal of the case.
The call “Television Wheel” It consisted of the collection of copyrights for the broadcast of public domain songs registered with minimal or no modifications, usually in the early morning hours.
It was estimated that the fraud investigated, corresponding to the period between 2006 and 2011, could amount to at least 100 million euros. The chains investigated were RTVE, Atresmedia, Mediaset, Channel On, Television of Extremadura, Radio and television of the Principality of Asturias, Television of Galicia, Radiotelevisin de Aragn, Television of the Balearic Islands, EITB, Telemadrid, Public Television of the Canary Islands, Radio and television of Castilla y León y Television of Castilla La Mancha.
And also proper names like Jose Miguel Fernndez Sastrnwho presides over it SGAE between 2016 and 2018, the composer Rafael de Tena and the managers of a series of commercial companies through which they operated. They were accused, in addition to the improper collection and the damages caused to other partners, of obtaining voting rights in the assembly of the company with their “machinations.” SGAE that perpetuated them in power.
The collection of television rights in the night time slot came to represent 50% of the income of the entire schedule. The intellectual property law limited it to 20% and the SGAE itself reduced it in 2022 to 15%, a change promoted under the presidency of Antonio Onetti.