The former secretary of the PSOE Santos Cerdán has been responding patiently to the media stationed at the door of his house that he will not make statements but will speak before the judge of the Supreme Court that investigates him and that, then, he will demonstrate his innocence. This Monday will come. During his statement, the politician will refute the content of the audios that the Civil Guard has presented as indications of corruption and will exhibit its assets to try to demonstrate that it has not been enriched and that, therefore, it is impossible that it has participated in the corruption plot where the UCO, the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and Judge Leopoldo Puente are indicated.
The Civil Guard report on which the new line of biting of bite is held in exchange for public works includes eight conversations recorded by Koldo García. In five of them Cerdán appears. The researchers believe that its content shows that it knew and participated in the awards of the Ministry of Transportation at the time of José Luis Ábalos at the head of the department, a ‘modus operandi’ that would have opened in 2014 in Navarra with Koldo García, three years before his political landing in Madrid.
Cerdán has said publicly that he is not recognized in the audios and has come to mention the possible use of artificial intelligence to refute its authenticity. Sources of the defense of the politician ensure that the questioning that he will make of the recordings during his statement in the Supreme will have a double aspect: on the one hand, the technique, in which he will point to his possible manipulation, and, on the other, of the sense that the UCO agents give to the statements, which defends that in no case corresponds to reality. The former PSOE organization secretary will incorporate into his line of defense that has been put “in the spotlight by the political role” that this legislature has developed, as an interlocutor with Junts, mainly.
The researchers have so far determined the role of Cerdán as a “mediator” in the awards of public works and “manager” of the funds obtained in exchange for alleged Amaños. But it is necessary to find the reason for the performance of former ‘number three’ of the PSOE. For now, there is no trace where the money that allegedly pocketed and that raises the doubt of whether it was not him, but the party, the main recipient, something of what indications have not appeared so far. In his declaration of assets of Congress, Cerdán has assured that he has less money than at the beginning of the legislature.
The UCO has the judge’s mandate to investigate its accounts and bank products, as well as its real estate or vehicles. The content of their corporate mail of the PSOE is also held by agents, where the judge suspects that he could send or receive “certain relevant communications.” Other issues that close to Cerdán are its participation in Servinabar 2000, the company that the UCO considers the “channeling route” of those investigated to receive a percentage of what the company obtained in its temporary union of companies (UTE) with the construction company Acciona.
The agents found at the house of their friend Antxon Alonso, owner of the company and also charged, a document dated in 2016 that gives Cerdán 45% of the property. According to the private contract of sale, signed by both, former ‘number three’ of the PSOE paid 6,000 euros for 1,350 participations of Servinabar 2000. Alonso has been defending in recent days that this agreement was not elevated to public deed. Researchers argue that it is a usual practice in corruption cases that these private contracts are not advertised.
In one of his last cars, Judge Puente has even put a title to the case that instructs in saying that, “this is the case, without a doubt, of Don Santos Cerdán León.” In his opinion, there are “consistent indications” that he was dedicated to the “perception of economic awards in exchange for irregular concessions of public works”, and that everything indicates that he was in charge of “distributing among the different participants the quantities collected.”
Cerdán appears before the judge a week after the citation of Ábalos and Koldo García. Neither of them crossed accusations – the exassor asked to suspend the appearance and then rejected to declare – and not aimed at Cerdán. The offer of collaboration with the justice that had preached the environment of Ábalos in the days prior to the appearance was scored to answer a few questions from the bridge judge and the prosecutor in which he denied his involvement in the plot and denied that he had benefited from commissions or prebends. He also said that he was not recognized in the audios recorded in hidden by his subordinate.
Audios on the bites
The devices with messages and recordings that Koldo García kept until his arrest allow the UCO to make a reconstruction of the trajectory of the corrupt plot that has led the judge to attribute to Cerdán crimes of bribery and criminal organization. The former ‘number three’ of the PSOE appears in five of them, which includes conversations about awards or the distribution of money from the alleged bites.
In the first one, registered on April 22, 2019, Cerdán and Koldo García talk about the blockade that the then Secretary of State of Transportation, Pedro Saura, could be exercising on the tender of a work of their interest. They also allude to the collection of commissions. “I need some chief money, because I gave it all to him,” says Koldo García. The exassor claims to have received 60,000 euros. And he moved to Cerdán that, of that amount, 50,000 euros corresponded to Ábalos and 10,000 euros for himself. However, he maintains that he has delivered the totality to his boss, who states that he owes more money.
The second of the audios collected by the UCO is a year and a half later, on January 21, 2021. Then Koldo García acknowledges having charged 25,000 euros and points out that he still has a similar amount receivable. That conversation also reveals cracks between them. The advisor proposes Cerdán to stop being “intermediary” so that he and Ábalos go on to “surrender each other.” That same day, the three have another conversation in which they review the payments made. “450 were given in three envelopes,” says Koldo García. “I bring the role, we sign up and see it, point,” Santos replies, who instants later rebukes the advisor: “Koldo! I don’t want you to talk about this, that you don’t talk.”
The remaining two audios take place at a later stage, in which Ábalos and Koldo García are already out of the ministry. The first is from February 2, 2022. After several months without having coincided, Koldo García updates his situation and that of his relatives. Again they talk about the bites. “There have been 550, that is true,” says Koldo García, who also tells his interlocutor that he is looking for work for his wife and his brother, who had been fired from the plug that had been found in public companies.
The last of the audios is almost two years later, of December 12, 2023, when Koldo García is already investigated. Cerdán justifies the distancing with him claiming that he had been told that he was investigating his Civil Guard. Before this extreme, the exassor tells him that he knows that it was the UCO who investigated him and is disgusted by the bad economic situation in which he is supposedly in spite of “all the errands” that he has made “everyone.” Koldo García was arrested two months later. Cerdán remained in his post until June 12, when the devastating UCO report that collects these recordings transcended.
Source: www.eldiario.es
