Fernando Martín, president of the Spanish developer Martinsa-Fadesa, was paid 3.5 million Euros last year by the company he lead into Spain’s biggest ever corporate failure, reveals a recent report from the company’s court-appointed administrators. The board of directors was paid a total of 4.8 million Euros in fixed salary during 2008, whilst the 4 most senior executives were paid 962,000 Euros between them.

The same report makes clear that, despite the million Euro payments to the management, the developer has liquidity problems that threaten its chances of a successful restructuring.

Martinsa-Fadesa was forced to seek protection from its creditors in July last year, unable to cope with the billions of Euros of debt it took on towards the end of Spain’s property boom. It left more than 12,000 home buyers, many of them British, with no property to show for their stage payments, and wondering what would become of their money. Martinsa-Fadesa failed to provide bank guarantees for all the stage payments it took, which is against Spanish law.