Last Wednesday, just a day before the publication of the forceful Civil Guard report that predicted his indictment in the corruption plot known as the “Koldo case,” José Luis Ábalos once again requested his readmission as a member of the PSOE. The party suspended his membership in February after the alleged involvement of his former advisor Koldo García in this network. Pedro Sánchez’s former Minister of Transport and Secretary of the Socialist Organization then embarked on a multi-month flight, supported by grandiose declarations, recurring excuses and victimization.
Its parapet was the fact that during the months of investigation, investigators had failed to gather clear evidence against him. But that wall fell this week. The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the armed institute submitted to the investigating judge of the case before the National Court a report which attributes to it a “relevant and responsible role” in the conspiracy which took place in the Ministry of Transport and which he managed between January 2020. and July 2021. This report also confirms the “consideration” that he allegedly received from Víctor de Aldama, a businessman outside the health sector who earned 6.6 million euros thanks to mask contracts awarded by entities dependent on Transport and other ministries. .
Ábalos stood behind the lectern in the Congressional press room to address this topic for the first time on February 27. The affair broke out and his party opened an internal procedure to suspend him from activism: “If I resigned, it would be interpreted as a sign of guilt, which I do not accept.” The former minister declared himself ready to defend his “honor” and denied having enriched himself thanks to the conspiracy’s affairs. He said he would not resign.
“Defending my honor from the mixed group will allow me to witness the end of this match, forcing those who now intend to throw me out to have to look me in the face and many of the party teammates who are encouraging me to go from forward,” Ábalos proclaimed in a serious tone, grabbing the transparent desk with both hands.
The next day, he did a series of interviews. “There is always something that catches the attention and I have always asked for explanations. “I was given some, but I didn’t try to contrast them,” he said, presenting the plot as something that had happened within his ministry, but of which he had virtually no knowledge. perceived no sign He insisted that he would not resign with the thesis that, when everything turned out to be false, no one would restore his honor: “Reputation is the only thing we have left.” with the same strategy for months, with interviews, press conferences and a public confrontation against his party.
“I am not part of any conspiracy and the most important thing is that I have not benefited from anything at all,” he declared this Thursday, during his last public intervention, after the revelation of the report. The UCO report, however, includes two solid incriminating pieces of evidence that could compromise his future in court: the enjoyment of a villa in Cadiz in exchange for his intercession in the contracts and the payment by this businessman of the rent of the luxury house in Madrid. of his partner.
At the moment there are no bribes in the form of cash payments. But there are other gifts that uncovered seven months of wiretapping, hundreds of intercepted emails and the deposit of 170 electronic devices – including cell phones and computers – confiscated from members of the network and people related to it.
Despite this, during this period Ábalos increased public interventions and interviews with the media in which he declared his innocence and even tried to present himself as a victim of a lynching which violated his “private life”. “It’s a permanent orgy that everyone has signed up for,” he said last September in an interview with Onda Cero. The former minister went to Carlos Alsina’s “Más de Uno” program after the digital newspaper The Objective published emails in which a woman demanded payments of up to 1,500 euros to accompany him on official trips .
In this interview, Ábalos revealed that he had with this woman, named Jéssica, “a relationship like the one that everyone normally has, not otherwise.” And he assured that he paid the costs of these trips through his advisor Koldo García, but always out of his own pocket. “What does this have to do with the cause?” he also asked, trying to present himself as a victim of an alleged leak to harm him.
UCO investigations, however, prove that Víctor de Aldama, the businessman who infiltrated the ministry to access mask contracts, paid up to 32 monthly rent payments for the apartment in central Madrid where Jessica. A luxury apartment, located in the Torre de Madrid building, in the capital’s Plaza de España, and for which the land paid 2,700 euros per month.
Through an alleged nominee and people and companies under his control, the alleged winner paid this income from March 2019 to September 2021. In total, 82,298 euros. In addition, the woman was hired as an administrative assistant at Ineco, a company dependent on Transport, where she entrusted her tasks to Joseba García, Koldo’s brother, and was also placed in this public company.
A half-million cottage
This is not the only gift Ábalos received, according to the Civil Guard. The report also alludes to the “multiple evidence” that Ábalos made “real use” of a luxury villa located in the La Alcaidesa urbanization, near Sotogrande, purchased by Aldama through other men alleged straw. Emails analyzed by the UCO show how the then minister even suggested to his advisor several properties in this development – including the one ultimately acquired – and that the latter was responsible for managing all the “details”, including questions related to the furniture of the house.
According to the police report, Aldama managed the purchase of the chalet for 526,500 euros by appealing, first, to Venezuelan businessmen; and, later, using another fraud attributed to him in the hydrocarbon sector for which he was sent to prison last Thursday. In exchange, businessman Claudio Rivas – also imprisoned this Thursday – expected to receive a license to sell fuel. On July 10, a month after signing the house, Ábalos was fired.
Six months later, in December 2021, the Ministry of Industry denied having granted Claudio Rivas’ company the right to operate in the wholesale hydrocarbon market. This decision angered the businessman, who warned Aldama that the new scenario would “bring problems” and “very serious problems”. The UCO sees “a cause and effect relationship between the refusal of Industry and the expulsion of Ábalos from the chalet”.
“Regards”
These are “compensations” that Ábalos allegedly received through his efforts on behalf of the company that won million-dollar mask contracts during the pandemic. For example, UCO relates “the decision to hire with Management Solutions [la empresa adjudicataria de los contratos bajo sospecha] with Aldama purchasing a cottage for the enjoyment of the former minister himself. In fact, the report limits to Ábalos the final order that led a public entity within the scope of the ministry – State Ports – to conclude a contract with this company. The contract amounts to 20 million euros.
Last May, when he appeared before the Senate parliamentary committee investigating the matter, he said he had “no knowledge” of purchases of medical supplies during the worst months of the pandemic and denied lobbying to enter into contracts with specific companies. He said he had not “monitored” any purchases and attributed all responsibility to the ministry’s undersecretary, Jesús Manuel Gómez García, accused in this case since last July.
“I entrusted everything to him and he was also the one who decided to orient the contracts around companies that had a budget at the time,” he said, citing the contracts with Puertos del Estado and Adif, which reached 32.5 million euros. In his statement as defendant, Gómez García assured that it was Koldo García who provided him with the offer from the plot company and that he passed it on to the entities responsible for awarding the contracts.
Although expected, the report on Ábalos caused internal upheaval within the PSOE, of which he was a leading figure. He was one of the key figures in the 2017 primaries that brought Pedro Sánchez to the party leadership. His departure from the ministry took place three years ago, but it was never explained to either the government or the PSOE.
The outbreak of the scandal last February caused a brutal break between the party and the man who was its “number three” and all-powerful Minister of Transport. The team is processing an expulsion case which he has appealed. This situation also caused a personal break with the current Secretary of the Organization, Santos Cerdán.
Ábalos refused to hand over his deputy file and went to the Joint Group, which allows him to retain the power which means that only the Supreme Court can investigate him. Relations with the government of which he was part became particularly tense from the summer, when the Ministry of Transport, now headed by Óscar Puente, made public an audit which confirmed “irregularities” in the purchase contracts of masks during the pandemic. and reported to your team management. “From now on, I will vote in conscience, I will no longer be a supporter of the PSOE,” he warned in September in an interview with El Español. A little over ten days later, he issued the first warning by abstaining from two PP initiatives.
He also tried – unsuccessfully – to pose as a victim in this case and went to the public prosecutor’s office to report the alleged leaks in the case. At that time, the UCO was already finalizing the report which clearly highlights this and which brought the specter of corruption back to the heart of the government and the PSOE. After the shock, Pedro Sánchez tried to act forcefully: “Unlike in the past, there will be no impunity. If there is corruption, whoever causes it must pay the price. »
