The “Koldo case” has already definitively transformed into the “Ábalos case”. The Supreme Court has set a date for what could be the first statement of former minister José Luis Ábalos in court in the most serious corruption case of the Pedro Sánchez era. Instructor Leopoldo Puente plans to question him “voluntarily” on December 12.
The former head of transport and organizational secretary of the PSOE is not obliged to appear given his status as a certified person, although close sources suggest that he will be present given that it was he who asked to be able to testify. In any case, if he ultimately does not do so, the judge will ask Congress to lift his immunity by asking to be able to summon him in a few weeks.
This will put an end to a headlong flight that has lasted for months since the PSOE suspended the former minister of militancy last February and expelled him from the parliamentary group after the alleged involvement of his former advisor Koldo García in the network corrupt who nested within the Ministry of Transport and who Directed by Ábalos between January 2020 and July 2021.
On the 27th of this month, six days after the arrest of his former right-hand man, Ábalos spoke for the first time on this issue in Congress and insisted that he would not resign. “If I resigned, it would be interpreted as a sign of guilt, which I do not accept.” The former minister declared himself prepared to defend his “honor” and denied having enriched himself thanks to the conspiracy’s affairs.
It was the first chapter of a defense strategy based on grandiose statements, recurring excuses and victimization. Ábalos did not skimp on public interventions in which he firmly defended his innocence, expressed his disappointment with his party for being expelled and denounced a conspiracy against him. All with the aim of denying his involvement in the face of the avalanche of increasingly coherent suspicions about his involvement in the events which emerged as the investigation progressed.
“Relevant role”, according to the UCO
Initially, the former socialist minister was able to affirm that during the months of investigation, the investigators had not managed to gather clear evidence against him. But last October, a strong report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) once again focused the spotlight on him. The Civil Guard attributed to him an “important and responsible role” in the plot and verified the “consideration” he allegedly received from Víctor de Aldama, a businessman unrelated to the health sector who earned 6 .6 million euros at the worst time of the crisis. pandemic thanks to mask contracts awarded by entities that depended on Transport and other ministries.
Aldama put the finishing touches on it on October 21. This businessman, whom the Civil Guard identifies as the “corrupting link” of the plot, voluntarily appeared before one of the two judges who were investigating him and corroborated and expanded through his statements some of the indications exposed by the investigators in their reports. In particular, what concerned the bites of Ábalos, which the UCO had not yet been able to prove.
According to the commissioner’s version, the former minister received around 650,000 euros in cash. To the 250,000 that would have been paid in commission for the more than 53 million masks sold to the Ministry of Transport, we would have to add another 400,000 in the form of numerous other payments. Koldo García, in addition to payments in kind, would have received an additional 200,000 euros. Ábalos denied the accusations against him and said he would study the criminal actions against Aldama given their “seriousness and falsehood.”
Supreme Court extends investigations
At that time, the UCO had already left in writing in its report two solid pieces of evidence against Ábalos: the enjoyment of a villa in Cádiz in exchange for his intercession in the contracts and the payment by Aldama of the rent of the house of luxury in Madrid whose partner he was. Despite this, during this period Ábalos gave public interventions and interviews in which he declared his innocence and tried to present himself as a victim of a lynching which violated his “private life”.
Two weeks after receiving this report, National Court Judge Ismael Moreno asked the Supreme Court to investigate Ábalos given the “substantiated and serious indications” of his “main role” in the plot. In her resolution, she attributes three offenses: criminal organization, for its “main role” in the network created by Aldama to obtain business with public administrations; influence peddling, for his “intervention” in the awarding of mask contracts to the field and for two public companies to hire his associate; and corruption, for the chalet in Cadiz that the land made available to him “in payment for his mediation” in the contracts and the payment of his partner’s rent.
Today, the Supreme Court judge is relying on this writing by Judge Moreno to act against Ábalos, but also to expand his investigations. Thus, it assumes jurisdiction to investigate Aldama and Koldo García, who will be forced to make statements before the Supreme Court on December 16 and 17. The High Court instructor considers that the events for which both are accused are “directly and inseparably” linked to those committed by Ábalos.
In his order, he recalls that the aforementioned reasoned statement placed Aldama as the person who would have obtained his “own economic benefit” by accessing the award of certain contracts in return for “certain payments or economic considerations” and “by taking advantage of his influence on Koldo”. García and on Ábalos himself. Regarding Koldo García, the instructor recalls that his colleague from the National Court had already identified him as the “link” between Aldama and Ábalos.
These are the elements that Judge Leopoldo Puente takes into account to carry out the bulk of the investigation. On the other hand, he emphasizes that the National Court must continue the investigation of all the other people indicted, among whom are the businessman Juan Carlos Cueto, the wife and brother of Koldo García or the commander Rubén Villalba. The special court will also continue to investigate aspects that are not related to the assessment and that could be attributed to Aldama and Koldo García, such as crimes against the Public Treasury and money laundering.
