David Sánchez, younger brother of the president of the government, will have to testify as an accused before a court that has been investigating for months whether his appointment as senior official of the Badajoz Provincial Delegation constituted preferential treatment and whether, moreover, he is illegally enriched with a public salary. The Civil Guard, after analyzing thousands of emails, found no evidence that anyone decided to create the post ad hoc for him in 2016 and concludes that the accusations about his alleged fortune, denounced by Clean Hands, are based on a hoax published in the media. .
The case began six months ago in a court in Badajoz, after the far-right pseudo-union filed a complaint accompanied by various press clippings published in the media. Information according to which the president’s brother received a public salary from the Badajoz Provincial Delegation “without going to work”. According to the complaint, he also has nearly one and a half million euros in BBVA shares.
The case, brought by accusations such as the PP, Vox, Manos Cleans, HazteOir or Abogados Crisitanos, evolved into the summons of Sánchez’s brother and other people under investigation, among whom is the socialist president of the Provincial Council . Possible crimes of embezzlement, prevarication and influence peddling are under investigation. David Sánchez will testify after the Central Operational Unit (COU) failed to find evidence that supports Clean Hands’ main accusations. On the contrary, the report of the armed institute dismantles the accusation according to which the brother of the head of executive became a millionaire overnight thanks to certain actions.
In its complaint, Clean Hands said that Sánchez’s brother’s assets “reach two million euros”, the majority corresponding to “1.4 million BBVA shares”. A few weeks earlier, a media outlet had analyzed his asset declarations and deducted this amount. The Civil Guard rejects this accusation, explaining that, probably, everything is due to an original error in the journalistic calculation that Manos Médicas then reproduced in its complaint. According to the agents, this news confused the nominal value of the shares in euros with the number of shares. Using the calculator on the BBVA website would have resulted in the unrealistic figure of 1.4 million euros. A second error regarding the revaluation of these shares resulted in the final amount. .
“It appears that the data provided in the complaint are the result of a probable erroneous use of the data,” says the Civil Guard. The judge, in David Sánchez’s summons, echoes this conclusion and asks BBVA to clarify the number of shares it held in the bank and their value.
Create your job
A good part of the report is devoted to analyzing thousands of emails from workers and senior officials of the Badajoz Provincial Delegation to search for evidence that the two jobs held by Sánchez – coordinator of the activities of the music conservatories of the province, first; and head of the Performing Arts Office of the Provincial Deputation, later – were created irregularly or expressly to be attributed to him due to his family ties with Pedro Sánchez. Both belonged to the category of “senior managers”.
However, the creation of the first of these positions began to take shape on October 11, 2016, just as Pedro Sánchez had just been dismissed from the general secretariat of the PSOE. The report, which also led the investigating judge to request more information from the Badajoz Provincial Delegation, recounts how, at one point, various leaders of the organization raised the possibility of creating a management position for coordinate the different conservatories.
Until then, underlines the UCO, this need had not been felt. In fact, the position of coordination of the conservatories was created on October 11, 2016. And the report includes an email in which, just six days before, the president of the Badajoz Provincial Delegation, the socialist Miguel Ángel Gallardo, also accused, describes as “excessive” a proposal to create new jobs made by another employee of the organization. This proposal did not include the position that Sánchez’s brother would eventually occupy.
The report also states that the director of one of the centers, the “Bonifacio Gil” conservatory in Badajoz, said by email that this coordination position could be “appreciated” but that the real priority was to find a new music teacher. “piano”. » and someone to take care of the library, which had not been able to open for “quite a long time” due to lack of staff.
The Civil Guard concludes that, at least based on the seized emails, it cannot know who had the idea of creating this position. “It is unclear who came from the initiative and what the main needs were that needed to be covered,” the report said. Furthermore, the researchers emphasize that the positions were “evolutionary”. At first, he was offered to manage only the higher conservatory, but this responsibility eventually led to a “senior management” position that coordinated the two conservatories in the province.
People whose emails have been analyzed by the UCO will have to appear before the investigating judge in the case. In addition to summoning the brother of the president, he also called to testify the president of the Provincial Council, the said Miguel Ángel Gallardo, who is secretary general of the PSOE of Extremadura, and positions such as the then director of the region of Culture and Citizen Action, several assistant delegates or the human resources manager.
A third ramification of the case initiated at the request of Clean Hands is whether Pedro Sánchez’s brother received a public salary for not working or, at least, for not going to work in person. In this regard, the Civil Guard does not publish conclusions and refers to the annexes collected in recent months.
Until the UCO report, David Sánchez’s defense had focused on discrediting the value that a Clean Hands complaint, based solely on press clippings, could have in justifying the opening of a legal trial. His lawyer’s writings criticize the fact that such weak evidence led to the adoption of such heavy-handed measures as the interception of communications, referring to the thousands of emails examined. However, the Badajoz Provincial Court, the highest court, has so far approved the instruction drawn up by Judge Beatriz Biedma.
