What Fray Martin Alexis González was doing, accused of improperly appropriating more than 260,000 euros from religious individuals with dementia and mental problems whom he cared for, was not a secret. It was talked about among the workers at the Dominicans’ residence El Vedat de Torrent (Valencia), where elderly friars who require specific care or cannot care for themselves live. Additionally, the whistleblower, a former collaborator at that center, informed the former prior of the convent, Juan Mengual, who downplayed the facts and even asked him to withdraw the complaint. The person who initiated the police investigation claims he also revealed what happened to Jesús Díaz Sariego, then provincial prior and current president of the Spanish Conference of Religious. Díaz Sariego has declined to comment to this newspaper, while Juan Mengual is confined in the convent where the events took place. When asked by this newspaper about the audios, the order refers to a statement they issued eight months ago, in which they say they are cooperating “fully with the court.”
In the spring of 2024, eight months after the Civil Guard began investigating, the whistleblower met with Father Juan Mengual, then prior of the convent where the infirmary is located, where Fray Martin Alexis González and who is allegedly his right-hand man, Luis Carlos Rodríguez, work.
—It seems unbelievable that a priest, a full priest, does what he is doing. I am ashamed, the whistleblower told the prior.
—That doesn’t matter to me now. I have put my trust in you and I am losing it.
The conversation is part of a recording of that meeting to which EL PAÍS has had access. The whistleblower, Marcos (a fictitious name as he requests anonymity), is a theologian by profession and for years kept company to some of the residents, especially a friar he describes as a professor and personal friend. It was precisely that religious figure, the official exorcist of the diocese of Barcelona, who asked him “a thousand times to bring these facts to light,” he points out.
According to the whistleblower’s account, this friar, shortly before passing away, wanted to give him 7,000 euros he had saved, and when he refused to accept such a gift, the religious man said: “If you don’t keep it, these two will spend it on feasts.” Marcos, who at that time often met with the prior because he was advising the order on a project that never materialized, says he had a “good” relationship with Fray Martin, who arrived in Torrent at the end of 2018, until he discovered what he was doing to the religious individuals he was supposed to care for. “He is a person who appears very good, charismatic, funny,” he assures. Other sources consulted by this newspaper who had contact with him at the Dominicans’ convent of El Vedat also describe him as “a close and down-to-earth guy.”
The conversation between the whistleblower and the former prior of the convent, whose content this newspaper has accessed and independently verified, takes place in a café near the residence where Marcos expresses himself very clearly:
—Why are you covering for a criminal?
—Which criminal?
—Martin, knowing everything he has done.
—That’s another thing, he’s already scared, take that away, take that away [referring to the complaint].
—I can’t take anything away. It’s the prosecutor, it’s the prosecution that is investigating. And it’s the workers [of the convent] who went with the evidence to the Civil Guard.
—But let’s see, do I get into your house if your wife makes chickpeas or lentils?
—But let’s see, if the workers have seen that he has taken, that he has mistreated, how can we be covering for a criminal? We can’t in the church. You yourself told me: file a lawsuit, let him go. You yourself have told me before, that he is a thief.
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(…)
—We can’t talk about that. It’s secret, we can’t. Take away that complaint.
The meeting lasts at least 20 minutes, during which the prior tries to dodge the subject several times. The conversation changes course and they address other matters, although Marcos brings it up again later. He tells him he informed the then provincial prior, Jesús Díaz Sariego, the current president of the Spanish Conference of Religious.
That meeting with Díaz Sariego, he now points out, happened in February 2023 in an office where a lawyer and a nursing manager of the Dominicans were also present. “They talked about economic issues and Fray Martin’s bad practices.” According to his account, Díaz Sariego said nothing.
—That Martin is scared?
—He’s scared stiff.
—Well, he shouldn’t have done it, because you know as well as I do that he took money.
—But if that’s a family, he didn’t take money.
“I did all this because corruption within the church is unacceptable and must be exposed. These are words of Pope Francis that I tried to make my own. Some applaud those words, but then act hypocritically,” Marcos comments.
The prosecutor requests five years in prison for Fray Martin Alexis and for who he considers his accomplice, Luis Carlos Rodríguez, for improperly appropriating 263,877 euros from five religious individuals with dementia problems whom they were supposed to care for. When Fray Martín, in charge of the residence, detected that they had health problems that implied a decline in their mental state, he made them sign a document in which he was authorized on the private bank account, the one where the part of the pension that was automatically deposited into the residence’s common account would not go. The whistleblower and the former worker who have ratified the facts believe that the appropriation of money by these two people was not limited to what the prosecutor described, but that they also took cash that the religious individuals had in their rooms.
EL PAÍS has informed the order of the Dominicans to which Fray Martin Alexis and Jesús Díaz Sariego belong about this information. The order refers to a statement sent in October 2025, when it was not yet known if an oral trial would be opened, as has ended up happening. In that statement, they indicated that they had cooperated “fully with the court” with the requested documentation. They add in the same statement that the order “does not tolerate irregular conduct and, at the same time, defends the presumption of innocence.” They also point out in the text from eight months ago that “the persons cited as allegedly affected have stated that they do not consider themselves harmed” and that, due to the vow of poverty, the goods of the Dominican friars “are not individually owned.” The pensions, the note elaborates, “are intended for the care of the religious and the expenses of the house, with accountability. Consequently, any eventual irregularity would affect the common patrimony” of the order.
Likewise, this newspaper has contacted the Spanish Conference of Religious, of which Díaz Sariego is president, which has declined to offer its assessment. Fray Martin Alexis has not responded to calls made by this media, although he has responded to the newspaper La Voz del Sur, where he assured that he is going through these moments with “pain.” “Everyone who knows me already knows how I am,” he limited himself to saying. EL PAÍS has also contacted Luis Carlos Rodríguez, who also prefers not to say anything.
The outer gate of the convent is wide open this Wednesday, but the one that gives access to the complex of Dominican buildings is tightly closed. They do not answer the doorbell and can only be contacted by phone. Outside, the street is practically deserted amid a red alert for high temperatures. The splashing of the pools of the chalets surrounding the complex can be heard and a couple of workers packing up their tools. “You’re here because of the priest, right? I saw him on TV yesterday. What characters,” says one of them.
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