“Everything indicates irregular financing and that is what we want to be investigated,” said the PP’s national spokesperson, Borja Sémper, on Monday when he appeared at the National Court for file a complaint against the PSOE for illegal financing. The document, to which elDiario.es had access, provides no more evidence than two anonymous testimonies who claim to have delivered bags of money to the socialists’ headquarters in Ferraz. The complaint does not identify those making these accusations and does not add any other evidence, testimony or documents.
These anonymous testimonies come from a report by The Objective, where two people anonymously report that the ringleader of the Koldo affair, businessman Víctor de Aldama, had acted as an intermediary with a businessman in the sector hydrocarbons to obtain a license for your business. This businessman, named Claudio Rivas, allegedly paid Aldama 600,000 euros in exchange.
The complaint indicates, based on these testimonies, that Koldo García Izaguirre, advisor to José Luis Ábalos at the Ministry of Transport, met with Aldama and Rivas to facilitate obtaining this license. “Regarding the manner in which the aforementioned payments were made, it is indicated that at least part of the amount allegedly owed would have been physically transported to the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party,” the PP complaint asserts.
“In the recording of the interview which accompanies the news, the deponent declares that, of the 600,000 euros agreed, ‘the amount of 90,000 euros is taken to Ferraz, which is delivered to rue Ferraz, on the second floor, to the headquarters of the Party Socialist”. These deliveries would have been made to “a man, come on, who was waiting for this envelope to be given to him”, specifies the PP document.
“The payment of 90,000 euros in cash to the PSOE headquarters would have been made in two deliveries, in October 2020. Money that ‘was transported in a plastic bag,’” continues the complaint, which considers the information as good and questions the fact that the person who went to Ferraz “was not asked for any documents and was expressly asked if they came from Mr. De Aldama, from which it follows that PSOE workers knew the latter.”
The PP highlights that the oil company ended up obtaining the license in September 2022, and concludes that four crimes were committed: money laundering, illegal party financing, corruption and influence peddling. “With regard to the illegal financing of political parties, it should be noted that the alleged handing over of 90,000 euros in cash by an individual to obtain administrative authorization at the headquarters of a political party constitutes sufficient evidence to open an investigation aimed at to clarify the identity of the beneficiary and the destination of the funds,” maintains the PP.
But in the 12 pages of the complaint, the PP provides no evidence. He demands that the National Court open an investigation and accuse the PSOE solely on the basis of two anonymous testimonies published by a media outlet. In the procedure she requests, she does not even ask that these people be identified and questioned: for the moment she is limited to demanding the interrogations of Aldama, the businessman who allegedly made the payment and of Koldo García, as well as the testimony of the workers as witnesses. of Ferraz who would have received the money.
This Monday, Sémper assured that the anonymous complaint, published by L’Objectif “is of such magnitude and gravity that a new legal document” on the issue seems reasonable to us. “I understand that there are people who can doubt the intelligence of the PP, but let’s not doubt common sense,” he argued to defend his complaint. “Everything points to irregular funding and that’s what we want to investigate,” he said.
The PP’s strategy is that the Court of Instruction number 5 of the National Court, which is already investigating Aldama and Rivas for their alleged participation in a fraud against the Public Treasury of more than 182 million euros in the hydrocarbon sector, admits this complaint for its alleged connection to the conspiracy.
After the presentation of the complaint, the PSOE launched into criticism of the “cynicism” of the PP: “The friend of a drug trafficker calls us to account from a seat in ‘B’. What are they? “The Sopranos?” declared socialist spokesperson Esther Peña at a press conference.
Peña recalled that the Popular Party had 39 cases open in court related to corruption crimes. “It’s the height of cynicism, it’s shameful. They are making this claim based on an interview with an anonymous person who presents no evidence or details. It was not easy to make the decisions we did because Ábalos was an important person for the match. But we are a clean party and we demand responsibilities, whoever falls and whoever has to pay pays,” he concluded.
