José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García They head their way to the bench. Judge Leopoldo Puente finalizes the instruction of the part relating to the blow of the masks and the alleged collection of commissions during the years in which they operated in the Ministry of Transportation. The instructor accelerates with this line of investigation after the failed attempt to get the former socialist leader and his former right-hand man to clarify the origin of their “opaque” income.
The Koldo case instructor has already recently warned that this part of the case is “very advanced”, Therefore, its processing is expected in a very short period of time. Now, both Koldo and Ábalos go to the bench without having commented on the transfer of metallic money with which they operated for years, regarding the vacation homes that the former minister enjoyed in Cádiz or Málaga or the periodic payments that he sent to them from Víctor de Aldama
In fact, the confession of this businessman It especially complicates his criminal horizon, since the magistrate and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office validate his testimony by confirming it with much of the evidence collected. It is worth remembering that the instructor divided the procedure into two, including in the main piece everything related to the activities of Koldo, Ábalos and Aldama and, in the second, the public works awards for which Santos Cerdán and the businessmen who benefited from the plot are being investigated.
Your links with abroad
Without knowing the strategy that Ábalos and Koldo adopt for the oral hearing, what is clear is that they arrive at the bench without acknowledging a single crime of those they are accused of. Neither agreed to testify in their turn before the judge this week, although both have avoided prison. After Ábalos’ turn on Wednesday, Koldo took over this Thursday. As LA RAZÓN has been reporting, the former ministerial advisor opted to keep silent before the judgewithin the framework of the strategy designed months ago and to which he has also subjected his former boss.
After his appearance, the magistrate celebrated the preview of precautionary measures, since the popular accusations (with the exception of the association linked to the PSOE Adade) requested unconditional imprisonment without bail. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, advocated that the precautionary measures that already weigh on him be maintained, considering that the risk of escape, repetition of crime or destruction of evidence has not increased in such a way that prison should be agreed upon.
The magistrate acted in accordance with what was decreed for Ábalos and He set him free. In his order he defended that none of the assumptions for agreeing to prison “are clearly seen.” Now, it does not rule out that they can be removed from the action of Justice. For this reason, it is possible that a prison sentence will be agreed upon for both as the date of seating them on the bench approaches. In addition, he revealed that Koldo can hide money abroad that has not yet been located and that in the past he kept “certain links with other countries”which now “it is unknown if they persist.”
The nerves of the accused
Thus, although the two alleged ringleaders of the plot remain at large, the evidence against them has strengthened to the point that the trial is increasingly closer to reality. So much so that the nerves of the former minister and his subordinate are increasing. This same Thursday, minutes before appearing in the high court, Koldo García starred in a tense disagreement with journalists who were waiting for him at the doors of his lawyer’s office.
Once at the Supreme Court, he did not attend to the crowd of journalists who were waiting for him there, neither at the entrance nor at the exit. However, his media interviews in recent weeks were the subject of analysis by the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Alejandro Luzón, who warned of the paradox of giving explanations of the case to the press, but then remaining silent in court. His lawyer replied that he was doing it to defend himself from the harsh criticism of public opinion, but the magistrate quickly cut him off, remembering that the purpose of the vistilla lay solely in determining whether or not the precautionary measures were modified.
It should be remembered that Ábalos has testified up to four times regarding these events and Koldo, for his part, three. However, in none of the appearances have they been able to explain where the cash they used during Ábalos’s years as minister comes from or the reason why Koldo controlled all personal expenses from his then boss without him returning the amounts.
Network bribery, on trial
In this first trial, the million-dollar commissions received with the awarding of covid contracts from Adif and Puertos del Estado to the company in the scheme, Management Solutions, will also be put on the table; the hiring of Jésica Rodríguez, Ábalos’ ex-partner, in two public companies, payment for luxury housing in which he lived in Plaza de España and which was paid for by an associate of Víctor de Aldama, the businessman’s cash payments to the former socialist leader and his former right-hand man, or the vacation homes that Ábalos enjoyed in the summers of 2020 and 2021 in exchange, presumably, for favor the hydrocarbon operator license to a firm linked to Aldama and to promote the rescue of Air Europa, respectively.
In that sense, Koldo’s “influence” will be judged in the Ministry of Industry (which would have promoted the granting of the license to Villafuel) and in the Ministry of Finance. Specifically, with Carlos Moreno who, during his time as chief of staff of the minister of the branch and vice president of the Government, Maria Jesus Monteromet with Aldama (a fact that he himself confirmed in court) about the postponement of the debt of one of his companies, which was finally carried out. Aldama maintains that He charged a commission for this management.