The Supreme Court increases the pressure against José Luis Ábalos almost five months after opening a criminal case against him. The judge who investigates whether the Minister of Transportation and PSOE Secretary of Organization charged bite in exchange for facilitating public awards to certain companies continues to seek evidence that the serious accusations that weigh against him and the indications that already appear in several police reports.
Some proceedings implemented are contributing to open new lines of research or reinforce existing ones. Others, however, make waters even to start. This Wednesday, a car transcended in which Judge Leopoldo Puente put the focus on two payments to the former minister worth 508,436.99 euros that, according to the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, the Ministry of Transportation that he directed had paid Ábalos in the 2018 and 2019 years.
Hours later, the current transport team issued a statement in which it stated that these expenses “are linked to the minister’s name, but, in reality, they reflect the total cost of the trips made in those years” for all the components of the delegation that accompanies the minister and that “was not made (…) no transfer to any bank account” of Ábalos.
The origin of the confusion is in a report that the Tax Agency made about the fiscal information of Ábalos at the request of the judge. Transportes explained that in these exercises, his staff interpreted “wrong” that these expenses statements were “equivalent” to individual diets and thus transferred it to the Treasury. However, the UCO agents already warned in their report that these fertilizers “would not have had identifiable reflection” in any of the accounts of the former minister.
“Powerful indications”
Beyond this confusion – the UCO had already erred by attributing to Ábalos the purchase of a property for 2.1 million that had actually cost 751 euros – other inquiries have yielded conclusions that lead to the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office itself to affirm that there are “powerful signs” of bribery against Ábalos. Until now, the existence of three properties of which it would have allegedly benefited in exchange for its intercession in contracts and the public salary that one of its ex -partners charged two public companies without going to work were the most obvious elements that weighed against the former minister to the light of the different attestors that appear in the summary and the statements of numerous witnesses.
But the magistrate who investigates him, Leopold Puente, has taken new steps after reiterating in several of his resolutions that the object of this cause is not limited to his intervention in the hiring of the masks during the pandemic, the episode that is in the germ of the investigations.
On the other hand, the magistrate has begun to give air to the accusations launched by the businessman Víctor Aldama, polymputee in this case and in another millionaire fraud in the hydrocarbons sector, on the bites in public works in the stage of Ábalos. He recently ordered the UCO to investigate the adjudication of the works indicated by the achievement of the case of alleged corruption that nest in the Ministry of Transportation in the Ábalos stage. The unity of the armed institute is already trying to control the entire process and identify the companies finally awarded these works.
The bridge magistrate believes that the “existing coincidence” between the letter of the advisor of Ábalos, Koldo García, and the one that appears in a manuscript presented by Aldama as an alleged test of up to six rigged contracts justifies the investigation of these awards, as well as those reflected in an annex of investments of the general budgets of the State with dozens of “highlights with fluorescent line” contributed to the court.
The judge has made the decision to delve into these contracts almost five months after the commissioner, charged in two criminal cases, launched the first probe balloon on the alleged bites. He did it after leaving prison, where he was imprisoned for his alleged involvement in another case, fraud with VAT in hydrocarbons. After giving a statement at the National Court and committing to collaborate with Justice, he provided that documentation.
To try to compare the veracity of those handwritten notes attributed to Koldo García and where supposed pacts would include the award of public works to certain construction companies, the judge commissioned an expert report. The expert concluded that “the letter that is stamped on the documents” provided by Aldama “has been carried out by the same person” that underwent a calligraphic evidence on February 18 in the High Court. That is, Koldo García, who rejected his letter. That day, the exassor of Ábalos also presented several medical reports of surgical operations to justify that his letter could have been altered.
However, the judge considers that this “coincidence” justifies a more thorough investigation of those contracts. In his statement in the supreme last December, Aldama also said that he had a role of “collector” and that he charged up to four million euros in commissions only for public works awards with which he, later, paid some supposed bits to the former minister already Koldo García.
Both deny having received that money, although in the case of the exassor the UCO ensures that it received “periodically” payments of 10,000 euros in metallic that reflected in a handwritten accounting found at its home. When he was arrested, in February last year, the agents found 24,000 euros in cash at home. The judge is aware of receiving reports on the heritage and communications of Ábalos that he has commissioned to the Civil Guard.
Contracts in public companies
On the other hand, the Judge Puente follows the track of other alleged prebendas from which the one who was a socialist minister could have benefited. Next Tuesday, May 6, he plans to interrogate Claudia M., another woman with whom Ábalos had a relationship. In one of its last crowded, the UCO affirms that this woman was hired by the public company Logirail SME, whose only shareholder is Renfe, a transport dependent, thanks to the “influence” of the then minister and who was his right hand.
The agents are based on several messages that reveal that Ábalos asked their advisor to mediate to get a contract for her at the end of 2019. “Gijón’s [en referencia a Claudia M., que es asturiana] They cannot hire it in Renfe, Adif or any of their subcontracts? ”Asked his advisor.
The hiring of Claudia M. came to light after it was uncovered that another ex -partner of the then minister, Jessica R., had been used in two public companies in which she charged a payroll for two and a half years without performing “any work activity.” This last hiring has put the focus on the former president of Adif Isabel Pardo de Vera.
According to the judge, there are “quite signs” that he participated in his “possibly irregular and capricious” hiring and has sent the facts to the judge who investigates part of that case at the National Court to decide if he must be investigated. In addition, an Aldama partner paid Jessica R. For 32 months the rental of the luxury apartment in which it was resided in a skyscraper in the center of Madrid and costing 2,700 euros per month.
Something more than a year after the outbreak of the case – and that Ábalos was expelled from the PSOE and the parliamentary group – the investigation reaches a critical moment. The judge maintains the millionaire mask contracts origin from the investigation, but his last steps are aimed at examining whether the plot extended its influence on other public awards.
Source: www.eldiario.es
