The two beach clubs on Talamanca’s beach that Cathy Guetta, the ex-partner of DJ David Guetta, founded in 2018 owe the General Treasury of the State Social Security little over 212,000€ for non-payment of contributions by their employees. The Turquoise Ibiza Beach Restaurant SL owes around 83,500€, while the Bikini Beach Club Ibiza SL owes the remainder.
Turquoise Ibiza Beach Restaurant was founded in April 2018, was registered in the General Social Security Regime on May 21 of that year, and was forced to close due to a lack of workers at the end of October after accruing a debt of 83,431€ in total for non-payment of contributions by its employees from June onwards.
In the case of Bikini Beach Club Ibiza, it ceased paying Social Security in June 2018 and had a debt of about 250,000€, albeit some of the amount was decreased throughout the processing of the debt claim filing. The two businesses were only open for business during the summer of 2018.
The Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJB) dismissed an appeal by one of the two administrators of the firms controlled by Cathy Guetta against a resolution of the General Treasury of the Social Security declaring her equally and severally accountable for the debit. The appellant contended that it was “improper” since he informed the Commercial Court of the start of negotiations to obtain a refinancing deal and then filed for bankruptcy of both firms.
However, the TSJB sees “negligence” in the administrator, therefore it considers the appellant accountable after showing that “the detrimental act is contrary to the law.” The verdict specifically states that the administrator “failed” to comply with the responsibility to convene the general meeting of the firms within two months of three consecutive months of non-payments to the Social Security to petition to the court for bankruptcy proceedings.
The reason for Cathy Guetta’s business “dissolution”
The two firms were on the verge of “dissolution” due to the losses specified in Article 363 of the Capital Companies Law: a decrease in net worth to less than half of the share capital. As a result of the verdict, both firms were formed with a capital stock of 4,000€. Turquoise Ibiza Beach Restaurant had a negative net book equity of 184,442€ in the second quarter of 2018, while Bikini Beach Club Ibiza had a negative net book equity of 735,991€.
They were also declared “insolvent” under Insolvency Law 22/2003 for failing to pay Social Security contributions for more than three months in a row. According to the verdict, the appellant was aware of this since he commenced the steps to file for insolvency proceedings, despite the fact that the statutory deadline had already passed. This is the stage at which the “negligence” noted in the sentence can be challenged in the Supreme Court.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.