The instructor of the National Court Santiago Pedraz, in charge of the investigation into the hydrocarbon fraud plot, accepted a battery of judicial summons at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, after receiving a report a few weeks ago from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard with new details on corruption. Among those called as witnesses are Marc Isaac Pons and Juan Ignacio Diaz Bidartformer chiefs of staff of former ministers Teresa Ribera and María Reyes Maroto, respectively. Pedraz also cited the head of the General Directorate of Energy and Mining Policy, Manuel García Hernández.
Bidart, Pons and the businessman under investigation Claudio Rivas, associate of Víctor de Aldama, are summoned on January 28 from 10 a.m. Aldama will testify on January 29alongside Manuel Hernández and businessman Manuel Salles. Carmen Pano, her daughter Leonor González Pano and Álvaro Gallego García will appear before Pedraz on January 30.
Prosecutor Luis Pastor requested all these procedures following the latest UCO report. The document investigates payments made by Claudio Rivas to “accelerate the obtaining of the title of hydrocarbon operator” for his company Villafuel SL. As the Civil Guard pointed out, Rivas used the company Have Got Time SL to allocate “approximately one million euros to purchase the will of public official” José Luis Ábalos.
The businessman accessed Ábalos via Aldama so that the then Minister of Transport “exercise his influence in different ministerial bodies related to the treatment” of the title of hydrocarbon operator. This is how the field contacted Juan Ignacio Díaz Bidart, Marc Isaac Pons and Manuel García Hernández.
The UCO recorded the expenses that Rivas used to “buy wills”, a list that the anti-corruption prosecution retrieves in its writings. He points out that the businessman delivered “5,000 euros in cash to Víctor de Aldama on December 27, 2020,” one day before the conspiratorial meeting with the Ministry of Industry. That same month, 108,500 euros were transferred to Carmen Pano. The UCO believes that “could be associated with a prior payment necessary to activate the influence they sought to obtain.”
For his part, Rivas spent 585,000 euros on a house in Alcaidesa, Algeciras, “intended for the use and enjoyment of José Luis Ábalos”. also paid “292,416.66 euros” to Aldama via Have Got Time SL. And an additional 6,950 euros to Koldo García. From Have Got Time SL, 925,036 euros were also transferred to a company owned by Víctor de Aldama called MTM 180 CAPITAL SL.
All these donations allowed Claudio Rivas to meet Juan Ignacio Díaz Bidart on December 21, 2020, December 28 of the same year and January 13 of the following year. He also managed to get Koldo García to maintain contact with Marc Isaac Pons on April 8 and July 8, 2021. And finally, he managed to obtain the operator’s license, which allowed him to commit a million dollar fraud.
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