Hidalgo tells the judge that he had nothing to do with the “Koldo plot” and that he does not remember his meeting with Begoña

More specifically, Hidalgo mentioned Richard Clarkcurrent CEO of Globalia, appointed in 2021, already Imanol PerezDeputy CEO of Air Europa, is part of this holding.

This airline was responsible for delivering to Spain, at the beginning of 2020, the masks purchased by the Ministry of Transport from Soluciones de Gestión SL. These contracts, awarded manually due to the health emergency situation related to Covid-19, are currently being investigated by the National Court for possible irregularities in their award. Judge Ismael Moreno is also investigating whether, through them, judicial commissions were received. He Koldo case It is called this because Koldo Garcia Izaguirrethe chief adviser who was Minister of Transport at the time the awards were signed, Jose Luis Abalos.

At least three of the popular accusations in this case will require the judge to call Clark and Perez as witnesses. They are the political party Justice Europe and associations Liberum And Make yourself heardThe latter, in the document that it will soon present to the National Court, will ask Globalia to identify which specific workers negotiated the agreement with Management Solutions.

Sources present at Hidalgo’s interrogation confirm to EL ESPAÑOL that the former CEO of Globalia indicated that the company did not obtain a particular economic advantage from the flights to bring the masks to Spain. The witness referred to the large number of deaths caused, at that time, by the Covid-19 pandemic to deny having sought to profit from this operation.

Several of the popular accusations have attempted to question Hidalgo about her relationship with Begoña Gomezthe wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. However, Judge Moreno did not allow these questions to be asked, as they have no relation to the subject of this judicial investigation.

However, the witness replied that he did not remember two work meetings he attended and in which Gómez was also present. They took place at Globalia’s headquarters, in the summer of 2020.

Sánchez’s wife is being investigated by another judge, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, president of Madrid’s investigating court number 41, which is investigating his businesses. Some of the popular accusations of Koldo case They also exercise it in the call Begoña case.

Javier Hidalgo also explained his relationship with Victor de Aldamaone of the main people investigated in the Koldo case and the intermediary/commissioner considered for the plot.

The businessman said that Globalia had hired Aldama for the “provision of services” and claimed to be unaware of the latter’s links with Koldo García and with Soluciones de Gestión SL. He also said that he did not know former minister Ábalos personally, apart from having seen him in the media.

Víctor de Aldama, as Hidalgo acknowledged and in accordance with what was revealed by EL ESPAÑOL, was hired by Globalia, for the first time, for a particular task: to try to unlock the million-dollar amount that the Venezuelan government had withheld from the holding in the said country. In fact, Air Europa promised him a five million euro commission if he managed to recover the 176 million blocked by Chavismo.

Let us recall that at that time, in 2019, and still today, Venezuela did not allow the Venezuelan currency to be exported to other countries. On the other hand, due to the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Air Europa received, as a rescue, a public credit of 475 million euros.

This Thursday, in his statement, Hidalgo also said that he had no connection with another of the people investigated in this case: Alvaro Sanchez Manzanareswho was secretary general of the public company Puertos del Estado (PdE) at the time of the events under investigation.

PdE was one of two entities attached to the Ministry of Transport used to centralize purchases made from Soluciones de Gestión SL. The other was Adif, the director of railways.