Vila Casas Foundation brings legal action against former director over alleged embezzlement
The foundation's board attributes the alleged unlawful appropriation of €400,000 over a year and a half
Criminal complaint against former general director of Vila Casas
The Fundació Vila Casas has filed a criminal complaint against Joan Torras Ragué, who served as general director and manager of the institution for more than a decade. According to the complaint, which La Vanguardia has seen, the board attributes to him the alleged unlawful appropriation of around €400,000 in barely a year and a half.
The complaint, also signed by Hotsun Condal S.L.—the management company of the real-estate assets linked to the foundation—charges Torras with three offences: breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation and falsification of documents. The court of first instance number 16 in Barcelona has accepted the complaint for processing.
A senior executive with decades of accumulated trust
Torras Ragué began working at the foundation in November 2009 and was appointed general director in April 2013. A year later he signed an executive contract. For years he enjoyed extensive powers and the personal trust of the founder, Antoni Vila Casas, who died in September 2023 at the age of 92.
The investigation that led to the complaint was initiated by the new board after detecting suspicions of fraudulent use of the entity's funds, described in the motion as "improper or unaccounted expenses". The review covered the period between January 2024 and June 2025, the month in which Torras was dismissed.
Forged signatures and unjustified expenses
The complaint includes the results of a handwriting expert report which, according to the board, establishes how the defendant is said to have imitated Vila Casas's signature on contracts in which he assigned himself salary increases, raises in his credit card limits and bank cheques. These acts are described as having been committed even during the life of the patron.
Among the personal expenses charged to credit cards of the two entities—many of them at weekends—are meals at high-end restaurants, flights, stays in hotels, mileage, purchases of consumer items and payment of traffic fines. The total of these items approaches €45,000 and, according to the motion, "lacked justification and were completely unrelated to any professional or institutional purpose".
The board also points to the acquisition of 154 gift cards from a major department store over the course of two months, of which 117 "have no justified purpose", with an estimated financial loss of €21,060. Added to this are purchases of goods valued at €61,453 detected in the movements of several cards, as well as €84,125 corresponding to car leasing payments and cancellations described as "managed in breach of fiduciary duty". The complaint also lists salary advances, bonuses and other unjustified expenses.
The motion states that the defendant acted "with the sole purpose of obtaining personal benefit and to the clear detriment of the assets of both entities", and references abuse of trust, accounting obscurity and intent to gain, all despite Torras already receiving "substantial remuneration".
The legacy in dispute
The Fundació Vila Casas was created in 1988 by Antoni Vila Casas, a Catalan businessman who in 1960 founded Laboratorios Prodes and built the Prodesfarma group, which merged in 1995 with Laboratorios Almirall. He sold his stake in the laboratories upon receiving a lymphoma diagnosis. Thanks to an experimental treatment he lived to the age of 92 and devoted that period to philanthropy, assembling a collection that today exceeds 5,000 works.
The foundation manages four museum spaces: the Volart galleries and the CanFramis museum in Barcelona—dedicated to painting—, Palau Solterra in Torroella de Montgrí—photography—and Can Mario in Palafrugell—sculpture. Hotsun Condal S.L., established in 2003, administers the associated real-estate assets.
Four months after the patron's death, the board went through an internal crisis with the resignation of its president, Antonio Sagnier, and three prominent members. Vila Casas's widow, Montserrat Pascual Samaranch, assumed the presidency, and her daughter Montserrat Viladomiu Pascual assumed the vice-presidency. Pascual has also been an administrator of Hotsun Condal since January 2024; in April 2025 Viladomiu took on that administration. The new board considers the crisis to be resolved and has reiterated its willingness to continue the founder's legacy.
This newspaper contacted the defendant without having received a response at the time of publication.
Source: La Vanguardia