The president of the Central Investigation Court number 5 of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, released with precautionary measures the commissioner of the Koldo case, Víctor de Aldama, who remained in temporary prison for his alleged participation in a million dollar fraud to hydrocarbons and who This Thursday he made a voluntary statement and highlighted everything from a bribe to the current organizational secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, to the payments that he allegedly made to former minister José Luis. Abalos. He is prohibited from leaving Spain without the judge’s permission and will have to appear in court every week, as well as provide an address.
This declaration was requested by his own lawyer, in what initially appeared to be an agreement to find mitigating circumstances through collaboration with the justice system in the Koldo case and more favorable treatment of his provisional prison situation in the hydrocarbons affair. One did not necessarily lead to the other, because they are different cases, with different judges and different circumstances, but they both have a key element in common: the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office and its representative , Luis Pastor, who is the same in both procedures.
When after two hours Aldama had finished giving details about his photo with Pedro Sánchez, which was not accidental; on the more than 250,000 euros that Ábalos allegedly spent on masks during the pandemic; the envelope of 15,000 euros that he allegedly gave to Cerdán or that of 25,000 with which he paid a favor from the chief of staff of the Minister of Finance, Carlos Moreno; His lawyer had already asked Judge Pedraz for his release. Night had not yet finished falling when the anti-corruption prosecution presented a report supporting its request.
Since the case is secret, no other accusations can say much. If the prosecutor requests it, the judge must accept it and that is what he did. Pedraz ordered the release of Víctor de Aldama, who has been in Soto del Real since October 11, with the approval of the criminal court due to the risk of flight.
A credible story
Anti-corruption considers it plausible that the commissioner of the Koldo file, Víctor de Aldama, had relationships with people at the level of the secretary general of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, and the chief of staff of the Minister of Finance María Jesús MonteroCarlos Moreno; so that the bribe payments to which he referred during his statement before the judge will be investigated, inside or outside the National Court, because the story is credible .
Aldama, who spoke this Thursday for two hours before the investigating judge in the Koldo case, indicated that he had given 15,000 euros in an envelope to Santos Cerdán in a bar in front of the PSOE headquarters and presence of the president of the time. advisor by José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García.
As he detailed, he told him that this payment was necessary to appease the now number three of the Socialists, unhappy because Aldama had stepped on his ground by managing a license for a construction company in the north of the country. He was, according to Aldama, responsible for the “Basque quota” and it had to be fixed.
As for Moreno, the reason was more personal. Koldo García told him that he should be grateful and have “a detail” with him, after obtaining a postponement from the Treasury for a partnership. In his case, it would be 25,000 euros in another envelope also delivered to a bar, next to the headquarters of a ministry. However, he did not specify whether it was the Treasury or Transport, nor the date of one or the other of the two meetings nor the names of the companies he had on hand in both cases.
“The confession of crimes places the person indicted in a new situation, which distorts one of the reasons which determined the prison – the destruction of evidence – and attenuates the other – the risk of escape -, which is effectively avoided thanks to the precautionary measures requested by the prosecutor: the ban on leave the national territory, with the withdrawal of the passport and the obligation to appear every week before the court”, indicated the prosecution in a press release after the release.
Two corruption offenses
Tax sources consulted by ABC say that obviously, Aldama’s statements could turn out to be lies and that there is a lack of data to collect to try to corroborate them. but the story is plausible, as long as the occasion and possibility are given to it.As much as he had to meet the two people, he had to manage this amount of money. Furthermore, with this denunciation, the commission agent is involved in the commission of at least two possible crimes of corruption which did not weigh on his credit until he appeared before the judge this Thursday, therefore the fact of having said it harms him.
It is therefore naturally accepted among the sources consulted that the story must be investigated, although it is not a minor detail to ask where to do it. Three scenarios are considered: whether they are considered facts linked to the Koldo case and in which case they are investigated in the same case with or without a specific separate element; that it is considered that they are not closely related and that it is decided to deduce the testimony and transmit it to the ordinary courts of investigation or that the Anti-Corruption takes the witness and opens its own procedure of tax investigation, which should be closed as soon as a prosecution files a complaint.
