“I am the great-grandson of Carlos Arniches, and he has a one-act play that just turned 105 years old, called Los caciques, which refers exactly to preferential treatment for family, especially in local corporations. And I am here as a victim. I have reported to the internal channel of a company listed on the Ibex,” a voice from the audience is heard saying during the event that the Ortega Marañón Foundation organized and video-recorded in Madrid on December 9, taking advantage of International Anti-Corruption Day, with the title “Integrity and protection of whistleblowers.” Arniches’ great-grandson was one of them. He had reported an alleged case of nepotism in a public-private company, owned by the Alcalá de Henares City Council and a subsidiary of Mapfre, the multinational where he had worked for more than 30 years as a lawyer. He was summarily suspended and fired a month later, in February 2025, but he ended up winning. The trial in which he alleged that his dismissal was retaliation for the complaint was to be held on April 10, but minutes before the public hearing opened, Mapfre agreed to compensate him with 1,150,000 euros, according to the judicial resolution to which this newspaper has had access.
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“They intimidate you until the end,” the whistleblower had said at the December event recorded and published by the organizers. Once the compensation for unfair dismissal was accepted, it emerged that morning in court that the insurer wanted to seal the matter with a confidentiality agreement to prevent it from coming to light. Beyond the fact that the whistleblower law renders “null and void” any “confidentiality clauses” that “prevent or intend to limit the right or ability to report,” the matter had already been aired at the Ortega Foundation. As he recounted then, the whistleblower had taken refuge under the umbrella of the so-called whistleblower law, which prohibits retaliation against those who report corruption in the public and private sectors. And although he did not give names, EL PAÍS has identified and contacted all parties involved.
And it has documented his account. The mixed cemetery company of Alcalá, 51% owned by the city council and 49% by a Mapfre subsidiary, hired on October 1, 2020 —“just the day the entire perimeter of the Community of Madrid was closed due to covid”— the son of a multinational’s board member, Francisco José Marco Orenes, as assistant to the management of the Cementerio Jardín de Alcalá de Henares company. The son, Luis Marco Sepúlveda, was 25 years old and began earning 32,000 gross euros per year. “This contract may be co-financed by the European Social Fund,” states its ninth clause.
A year later and after “a tailor-made tender,” according to the whistleblower, Marco Sepúlveda —the sole candidate— became managing director and doubled his salary. This time, the Board of Directors was informed, so the whistleblower, who was then secretary of the Cementerio Jardín board, requested the documentation. “In the first [contract] there was no advertising, no call for applications, no terms, nothing,” according to the whistleblower’s account, who then summarized the company’s reaction.
“On December 18 [2024], they approve employees, managers, and secretaries of administrative bodies to report. On January 9, I file a complaint, and on February 17, I am fired.” “I haven’t set foot in the office again. In fact, I did go back, and the building’s security chief kicked me out after 34 years working for the same company and as an executive.” The informant stated that he filed the same complaint with the current mayor of Alcalá, Judith Piqueras (PP). In the years of the events, the mayor was a socialist.
Mapfre and the Alcalá City Council have not wanted to clarify the terms and conditions of the tender —all members of the evaluation committee depended on board member Marco Orenes— and whether the requirements of merit, capacity, and publicity, which, according to the then secretary of Cementerio Jardín, should govern the hiring by a company with a public majority, were respected. In fact, they have not wanted to answer any specific questions, as if no one were responsible.
The multinational and the local corporation have each sent a statement. “The disciplinary dismissal is not related to any complaint that had been filed. Mapfre always investigates any alleged irregularity communicated through the established channels, and in accordance with the provisions of the rules governing those channels,” says the statement from the insurance multinational, present in 37 countries with more than 30,000 employees. If the dismissal had nothing to do with the complaint, why has Mapfre agreed to compensate him with one million euros in a lawsuit that precisely alleged it was due to retaliation? Mapfre has declined to respond.
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“Although the City Council holds the majority shareholding,” the council’s statement alleges, “daily management is in the hands of the company’s management. Therefore, we cannot know exactly all the details of decisions made in the period you indicate (years 2020 and 2021), when there was another president,” it says, referring to the former mayor. “Any other more detailed information on the management under the previous socialist municipal government in Cementerio Jardín should be obtained by contacting former mayor and former president Javier Rodríguez Palacios or, perhaps, with manager Luis Marco Sepúlveda.”
Mapfre’s board member, Marco Orenes, father of the current manager of Cementerio Jardín, has not agreed to speak to this newspaper. His son did answer the phone: “I don’t have to answer any questions,” said the current manager of the municipal company, Marco Sepúlveda.
The former mayor, current PSOE deputy in Congress, places all responsibility on the Mapfre subsidiary. “They hire and fire, and every so often they report to the Board of Directors. All day-to-day management and the appointment of this gentleman are done at the proposal of the private party. Everything the private party knew and concealed from us is a problem for the private party,” responds Rodríguez Palacios. The current mayor, Judith Piqueras, has not wanted to answer the question of whether she did anything after receiving the complaint.
Throughout this last year, the informant has suffered the consequences of his decision. He recounted some of them to several of the heads of the regional anti-fraud agencies; as for the national one, there is no news that it is functioning three years after the approval of Law 2/2023, which transposed the European directive. “A year later, I am on pharmacological treatment. I lost 15 kilos in two months. That is the situation of the…, I prefer to call them snitches, as Spanish is very rich. Yes, I am a snitch, but these are the consequences,” said the great-grandson of the author of Los caciques. Perhaps the one million euro compensation indicates that some progress has been made.
If you have information about this or another case and wish to share it, you can write to us at bgarcia@elpais.es