Spanish Copyright Society Raided For Embezzlement 80
esocid writes "Senior officials in Spain's Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE), the country's leading collection society for songwriters and composers, face embezzlement charges in the wake of a Friday raid on the organization's offices. Investigators say Jose Luis Rodriguez Neri, the head of an SGAE subsidiary called the Digital Society of Spanish Authors (SDAE), made payments for non-existent services to a contractor that then paid kickbacks to Neri and his associates. SGAE, the Spanish counterpart to American collecting societies like ASCAP and BMI, is known for its high fees and aggressive enforcement tactics. According to El País, 'the society has been often accused of exceeding its remit by going as far as to infiltrate private weddings to check whether fees had been paid for the music being played at the banquet.'"
Re:They didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisitio (Score:5, Informative)
...The individuals will get off free...
Embezzlement is different than excessive executive compensation and is illegal in most places. Note that TFA says there was a raid and that they face "fraud, misappropriation of funds and disloyal administration" and that a High Court judge grilled him for more than four hours over the charges.
I suspect that they will not "get off free".
In related news: IFPI is also in trouble (Score:3, Informative)