Koldo’s case is moving forward at two speeds. The investigation into manipulation in the purchase and sale of medical supplies, which gave rise to this case, is rapidly approaching an oral trial against José Luis Ábalos, his former advisor Koldo García, and the commission agent with whom both dealt, Victor de Aldama. The proximity of the trial date, which looms in “only” a few months, prompted the Supreme Court to issue an order to send the former minister and his former advisor to prison, assessing the existence of a “severe” risk of escape.
At the same time, the Supreme Court and the National Court are conducting more preliminary investigations into two matters that threaten to wreak havoc on the PSOE and ACCIONA: the manipulation of public works led by Santos Cerdán and the cash payments from the PSOE to Abalos, García and Cerdán.
These are the latest lines of inquiry based on a report submitted by the UCO to the Supreme Court on June 5, and another submitted by the Armed Institute on October 3. The first revealed that the conspiracy headed by Serdan falsified the award of public works contracts worth $1 million to Acciona and other companies through ADEV and the General Directorate of Highways. The second showed a series of Cash payments “without documentary support” Provided by the Socialist Workers Party to Abalos and Koldo García as compensation for expenses.
The latter is being investigated by National Court Judge Ismael Moreno, who on Wednesday asked the Socialist Workers Party to hand over within 10 days a record of all cash payments between 2017 and 2024. For his part, Supreme Court Judge Leopoldo Puente summoned three former directors of Acciona to announce their indictment next December 3.
Notwithstanding the above, the National Court continues to investigate crimes related to the Mask Conspiracy and this week took statements from Victor de Aldama and Koldo García to investigate the Canary Islands awards.
Money trail
The main mystery in the Koldo case is the amount, source, and location of the bribes received by Santos Cerdán, former Minister Abalos, and Koldo García in exchange for awarding million-dollar contracts for the construction of public works. On June 30, after Santos Cerdán was sent to Soto del Real, the judge had already declared that the “loot” of the plot could be “more than five million euros.”
For now, the Central Operations Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has concluded this Santos Cerdán managed to administer bribes “supposedly coming from Acciona” amounting to €620,000.. The UCO deduces it from the conversations he eavesdropped on Koldo García’s phone. After identifying alleged fraud in favor of the companies Acciona, Levantina Engineering and Construction (LIC), Public Works and Irrigation (OPR) and Servinabar, the UCO requested, with the approval of the judge, the data of more than 500 banks linked to these companies. The information still needs to be analyzed.
On the other hand, the police unit indicated in a legacy report on José Luis Abalos that the former minister incurred expenses worth 95 thousand euros of unknown origin, so they may be the result of bribes due to public fraud.
This Thursday, Superior Court Judge Leopoldo Puente sent the former minister to prison, considering that Abalos “managed to receive and handle large sums of money”, which “allows us to conclude that he may have sufficient financial resources to carry out and maintain the escape.” Information about Cerdan is more diffuse, although Judge Puente attributes to him a key “functional position” in the conspiracy. The indictment against him came last June, months after Jose Luis Albalos was indicted. Judge Puente, at the request of the UCO, agreed to request information about Cerdan’s assets from various banking entities, but the asset report is still awaiting drafting.
Link with ACCIONA
There is also a lot of information to unpack regarding Acciona’s connection to the conspiracy led by Cerdan, which was revealed by UCO on June 5. A second report from the Guardia Civil helped clarify some of the issues in November this year. Select the armed institute Sirdan like “Affiliation” with the company, Specifically with former construction manager Giusto Vicente Pellegrini whom he met several times.
Cerdan is also linked to Acciona through Servinabar, in which he has a 45% stake. Cervinapar, a company owned by Cerdán’s friend Joseba Antixon Alonso, has benefited from several public contracts awarded by entities affiliated with the Ministry of Transport headed by José Luis Albalos. I accessed these awards through Acciona.
75.33% of the income received by Servinabar between 2015 and 2020 comes from contracts it concluded in a joint venture with Acciona. The number is up to 6.7 million euros. On the other hand, as UCO revealed, the company covered Cerdan’s expenses worth approximately 100,000 euros. This is enough data to undercut the strategy of the former organizing secretary of the SWP, who has always denied his links to Cervinapar and Acciona. But certain procedures still need to be carried out to determine the role of the multinational company in the conspiracy.
On November 14, the Civil Guard searched several ACCIONA headquarters and took documents that had not yet been analysed, a process that could take months. However, this week The judge will take statements as investigated from three former directors Company: Justo Vicente Pellegrini, Tomás Olarte Sanz and Manuel José García Alconchil.
Role of PSOE
Finally, the possible involvement of the SWP in a case in which two former organizational secretaries of the party are being investigated poses a threat. Alarms were raised at the beginning of October, when the UCO submitted a report to the Supreme Court on the matter PSOE payments to Ábalos and Koldo García “in cash” and “without documentary support”. In its analysis, the UCO compared the information provided in this case by the PSOE with certain letters in which Koldo García spoke about raising funds. After receiving the report, Judge Leopoldo Puente took statements as witnesses from former party director Mariano Moreno Pavón and Ferraz’s worker, Celia Rodriguez, who made some of the cash deliveries.
The Supreme Court judge left the investigation into these events in the hands of the National Court. Ismael Moreno, judge of this court, agreed on November 6 to open a separate investigation to investigate these events. This week, the judge asked the SWP Data on cash payments made for training between 2017 and 2024. The Socialist Party responded to the request on Friday, asking whether it should only send data on Abalos, García and Cerdán, and ruling out the possibility of providing data on all party workers. “There is also no right to demand that the SWP hand over all this information that is so sensitive that it ends up in the archives of the Popular Party, Vox and Hazet Aware, no less,” the party noted in a letter.