The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz has charged the PSOE manager, Ana Maria Fuentes; to the former secretary of the socialist organization Santos Cerdan and his lawyer, Jacobo Teijelo; to the businessman Javier Pérez Dolset; to the civil guard Juan Sánchez Yepes and to the lawyer Ishmael Oliver in the investigation of the “Leire case”, the alleged plot to deactivate judicial investigations that affect the socialist formation or the Government.
Pedraz – who has sent the agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) to Ferraz and to the headquarters of the Civil Guard early in the morning, he considers the socialist leadership complicit in the crimes investigated and also accuses him of falsifying a commercial document, for allegedly endorsing the payment orders to Leire Díez with invoices that the investigators consider false.
The crimes attributed to those investigated are membership in a criminal organization, influence peddling, bribery, revelation of secrets, induction of false testimony, false accusation, prevarication, falsification of a commercial document and a crime against State institutions. In particular, Teijelo and Sánchez Yepes are charged with crimes of revealing secrets, bribery, and crimes against State institutions.
Court sources specify that the police intervention is not linked to the alleged irregular financing of the PSOE – which Judge Ismael Moreno investigates in another secret piece – and that it is a “requirement” for documentation “with a warning of becoming a record” if there is no collaboration on the part of Ferraz.
The UCO, at the headquarters of the Civil Guard
The UCO agents have also gone to the headquarters of the General Directorate of the Civil Guard on Guzmán el Bueno Street, in Madrid, to the consulting firm of the former socialist councilor of Andalusia Gaspar Zarrías -who was convicted of the million-dollar ERE fraud, although his sentence was annulled by the Constitutional Court- and also affect, according to legal sources, the home of the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE Santos Cerdanlinked to one of those investigated, the businessman Antxon Alonso. Likewise, the agents have also entered the home of businessman Javier Perez Dolset.
Pedraz has ordered the UCO to request various documentation and electronic files from the PSOE in an investigation against a plot aimed at destabilizing judicial procedures that affected the PSOE or the Government, sources from the National Court report.
The magistrate sees indications of criminal responsibility of the PSOE manager “at least as an accomplice”, in the commission of the crimes investigated, and in any case as the author of the possible crime of falsification of a commercial document due to the issuance of “mendacious invoices.”
Two possible accomplices
The research points to Juan Manuel Serranoformer president of the Post Office and former chief of staff of Pedro Sánchez, already Juan Francisco Serranosocialist deputy and secretary of Municipal Policy of the Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE, for his alleged collaboration with investigators “in the execution of specific and isolated acts in aid of his illicit plan”, although pending the progress of the investigation he does not specify his possible criminal responsibility.
Pedraz considers that the allegedly criminal activity investigated is serious both due to the penalties that could be imposed and due to the high amount of the economic transactions under investigation, which is why he considers the requirements agreed upon today to be proportionate.
An action that has consisted of requirements to individuals and companies, as well as public and private entities to deliver “immediately all the documentation, electronic files and information detailed” in the three resolutions notified early this morning to those affected.
UCO agents They already entered Ferraz in search of documentation on June 20 of last year after the accusation of Santos Cerdán, but on that occasion to request papers on the alleged rigging of public awards that is attributed to the former socialist leader, who continues to be investigated by Judge Ismael Moreno.
An associate of Cerdán, investigated
Pedraz is investigating Fernández, Leire Díez and Alonso for an alleged plot to fix public contracts due to membership in a criminal organization, prevarication, embezzlement and influence peddling for the alleged irregular awarding of five contracts worth 132 million euros.
The piece, which remains secret – expected until June 8 – investigates various operations related to SEPI, the Sepides Group (State Society for Industrial Promotion and Business Development), Mercasa and Enusa. And, also, in the financing with 17.3 million euros of Arapellet SL, 100% owned by Forestalia, the Aragonese renewable energy company that would have benefited from Eugenio Domínguez, the former deputy director general of Environmental Assessment of the Ministry of Ecological Transition that was then directed by Teresa Ribera.
In the awarding of this project by Sepides – which consisted of the expansion of the company’s facilities and the start-up of a new plant – the alleged agreed commission was 200,000 euros, according to the UCO.
Most of those investigated, pending to declare
The Civil Guard points to three companies with “direct” links to Forestalia, which determines that the people in the focus of the investigation also include – the sources consulted point out – both the owner of the renewable energy company, Fernando Samper, and the brothers Eduardo and Roberto Pérez Águeda, both accused in the “Forestalia case” as alleged executors of the payments for the rigging.
Once the secrecy of the summary is lifted, the majority of those investigated will have to testify at the National Court, since so far only the former president of the SEPI, Leire Díez and the businessman Antxon Alonso have done so.