The businessman recommended by Begoña Gómez in two public tenders, Juan Carlos Barrabés, testified last July before the judge in charge of investigating the crimes of influence peddling and corruption in companies between the two, which was “several times”, “about four or five”, at the Moncloa Palace and had meetings with the president of the government and his wife, according to the full audio of that appearance to which this newspaper had access. A few days later, the magistrate changed his status to become an indicted person and on August 1 he appeared again, now for questions exclusively of his defense, and focused on explaining the operation of his company.
Questioned by magistrate Juan Carlos Peinado, he clarified that he had already met Sánchez in Benasque, “a town in the Pyrenees” and “several times” he greeted him, but he never had what would be defined as “a relationship with him”. “One day he called us to go to a meeting”, he clarified, adding: “I don’t know if he saw more businessmen”. “I went to see Begoña several times because of the master’s degree and then I went to see Pedro Sánchez, well I don’t know if it was once or twice. “I always went with an invitation”, he also said on the subject.
The judge then wants to know what they talked about in those meetings. “With Pedro Sánchez, I think I was doing a tour or something like that with the companies and it would be to have my opinion on how the issue of innovation was posed in Spain with the problems of small and medium-sized companies, with the things that I know. “, said the head of Grupo Barrabés.
He then said that he had “a meeting in which Manuel de la Rocha (head of the Moncloa economic office) and another person were present, someone like that also from the cabinet.” “And in one of them there was Begoña Gómez, Pedro Sánchez,” he said at another point in the statement, made by videoconference, which made the hearing difficult, and at the beginning of which he apologized for the gaps and the tone of voice. He was hospitalized.
“When I met Pedro Sánchez, I had two meetings, in one there was Manuel de la… (inaudible) and someone else but of his level and in the other, we were Begoña Gómez, Pedro Sánchez, Alberto (…) “He comes from the world of the ministry and we had conversations about innovation but they were very short because he had to respond to a call,” he added.
As for Begoña Gómez, she stressed that the conversations were “always about the subject of the master’s degree.” “Sometimes she was alone but normally there were women who worked with her, always girls, but I don’t know their names,” she added.
The “project support” letter
After explaining that she “asked him for help with the strategy” to set up the master’s degree, she then realized that it was “something serious” because the Complutense University of Madrid gave her that support and she ended up teaching at the Complutense University of Madrid. degree from the extraordinary chair that Gómez directed a master’s degree, for which he received “200 or 300 euros”, although he was no longer sure of the amount, he spoke from memory.
Regarding letters of recommendation, he stressed that when participating in a public tender “one of the things is always to present letters of support for the project”. “If you read the letter, you will see that it supports the project, not the company and that is super important. The team writes it. About thirty were written and one of them was sent to the master. Whether one person signs it and another, well, I don’t know”, he added, then, returning to this question, he underlines an idea: “the letter comes from the master, it does not come from her. The letter does not come from her in any case.
The line on Globalia
Throughout the appearance, in which the prosecution did not ask questions but the businessman’s lawyer did and the popular accusation that Vox exercises by bringing together the others, Barrabés was asked if he knew the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili.
After a few moments of hesitation, she realized that she coincided with him at an event where Begoña Gómez and the then CEO of Globalia, Javier Hidalgo, were also present: “There was an event where all three of them were and I know it because ‘I arrived late and it was the only time I saw Begoña Gómez with Javier Hidalgo and I saw them for a few seconds at the end of the meeting,'” he said.
Barrabés has the status of an investigated party in this case and last August the judge ordered an entry and search of his home and businesses in search of evidence of the influence peddling that he presumes in his access to public markets due to his relationship with Begoña Gómez. While waiting for the discharge, he presented the judge with a document demanding the return of his mobile phone, the same one that the UCO seized from him at the hospital where he was admitted.
