Victor de Aldama declared before Judge Ismael Moreno of the National Court that “co-directed Wakalua” when the company promoted by Globalia and UN Tourism sponsored the Center of Begoña Gomez.
The businessman wanted to send like this a notice in Moncloaadmitting his influence and leading role in Javier Hidalgo’s company which reached agreements both with the wife of Pedro Sánchez and with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge of Vice President Teresa Ribera.
Aldama’s statement regarding Wakalua has increased concern in Moncloa, according to sources close to the government, given the possibility that the businessman will prove in the near future his relationship with Begoña Gómez with documents and images .
During his appearance, Aldama only named Pedro Sánchez’s wife to say that he had gone to a meeting with Teresa Ribera for a joint project with Wakalua and that he was not there.
However, Begoña Gómez joined the request for conciliation, as a preliminary step to filing a complaint, against other members of the government and the PSOE such as Santos Cerdán or the chief of staff of María Jesús Montero, whom she accused of having received commissions.
The few sentences uttered so far by Aldama about Wakalua have increased anxiety and distrust towards the government and, in particular, Moncloa. for possible future disclosures made by the employer in court.
Globalia – Begoña relationship
Globalia and UN Tourism presented Wakalua, “the first innovation hub in tourism”, on January 22, 2019. The subsidiary of the Hidalgos and good friend of Aldama, the former Georgian minister Zurab Pololikashvilisigned a sponsorship agreement with the IE Foundation for Central Africa for an amount of 40,000 euros per year.
However, the pandemic prevented the execution of this contract and only 1,716 euros of plane ticket costs were executed.
Furthermore, between September 9 and 13 of the same year, Aldama traveled to St. Petersburg with Javier Hidalgo to participate in the 23rd United Nations Tourism Assembly in which Pedro Sánchez’s wife was also present.
The Ministry of Ribera
For its part, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge appears linked to the company that Aldama co-led in two projects. The first of these is a competition of startups organized by UN Tourism.
Wakalua and Air Europa were partners of the initiative, while the ministry of Teresa Ribera was an institutional collaborator. All three logos appear in official UN Tourism documentation.
The IE Africa Center also participated in this project and Begoña Gómez herself was responsible for awarding one of the prizes. Hidalgo and Pololikashvili created the category for the wife of Pedro Sánchez Social Innovators Retreat at the IE Africa Center.
The second of the joint projects between Wakalua and the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge was the failed initiative ‘Hello people’. Globalia has even produced files in which Teresa Ribera’s portfolio appears in collaboration, once again, with Zurab Pololikashvili’s UN Tourism.
It was this initiative that Aldama referred to in his statement when he claimed to have met the minister.
“We wanted to transform these villages or these areas into thematic villages on the condition of providing the region or localities closest to these villages with local labor,” said Aldama.
The idea was to take advantage of “disused infrastructure”. However, the pandemic and Globalia’s poor economic situation ultimately led to the project being abandoned.
Another project linked in this case to Begoña Gómez and that the Ministry of Ribera has supported and financed is the one known as G100 cooperation from the El Hueco laboratory.
The wife of the President of Government is among the 50 women who collaborate in the initiative to repopulate rural areas.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge subsidized the project to the tune of 100,000 euros at the end of 2022.
Teresa Ribera’s ministry logo also appears on the initiative’s website as financier.
Aldama and Javier Hidalgo met with Begoña Gómez on June 24 and July 16, 2020 at the Globalia headquarters in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), as reported The confidential.
These meetings took place as the government negotiated with Air Europa to save the airline. Additionally, this same media published that there was a meeting in 2020 in which Aldama and Hidalgo presented Telepharmacy application to the wife of Pedro Sánchez.
This initiative, in which the commissioner of the Koldo affair and the former CEO of Globalia were partners, aimed to make Telepharmacy the reference application for the delivery of prescription and non-prescription medications.
However, the two businessmen needed the intervention of Begoña Gómez in the face of the refusal of the Ministry of Health to approve this type of activity related to medicines.
From the Koldo affair At Begoña affair
Aldama assured prosecutor Luis Pastor and judge Ismael Moreno that he would continue to collaborate with justice, both in the Koldo affair and in the oil plot investigated by judge Santiago Pedraz.
Upon his release from Soto del Real prison, the businessman gave Pedro Sánchez an order: “Don’t worry, you will have proof.”
This opinion of Aldama and what he revealed to the judge about his ties to Wakalua also put him at the center of attention in the Begoña case.
The popular accusations filed in the case being handled by the Court of Instruction No. 41 have already asked Judge Juan Carlos Peinado for the statement of Víctor de Aldama as a witness.
