Canet council says ex-secretary's finances are not its concern
Canet d'En Berenguer town council (Camp de Morvedre district, neighbouring Sagunto) has rejected calls to comment on the personal finances of its former municipal secretary José Antonio Sancho Sempere, saying the matter falls outside its remit.
The local council of Canet d'En Berenguer — a small coastal town of 8,297 residents in the Camp de Morvedre comarca next to Sagunto — distanced itself from the growing scandal around the Vitas de Amarre case by insisting that the patrimonial situation of ex-secretary José Antonio Sancho Sempere is simply not its responsibility.
The statement comes as pressure on the council intensifies. The Valencian Community's High Court of Justice recently ordered Canet to pay 276,375 euros to the company Vitas de Amarre SL, which had been granted a hotel concession on the beach in 2002 — a concession that was always legally unviable because the land fell under coastal protection law. The Tribunal de Cuentas (Spain's supreme public auditing body, established under the 1978 Constitution), opened proceedings C93/2026 in May to investigate possible accounting liability for this financial damage.
Sancho Sempere served as municipal secretary across several administrations, wielding broad influence over public contracts and administrative files, before eventually ending up in prison on related charges. Investigative reporting by elperiodicodeaqui.com found that Vitas de Amarre made regular monthly payments — around 2,081 euros — to an association linked to Sancho Sempere between 2009 and 2011.