Aldama ratifies his accusations against Ábalos and Koldo and provides screenshots to try to prove rigging in works

The businessman Víctor de Aldama appeared this Monday as an investigator in the Supreme Court, where he arrived escorted by Daniel Esteve, leader of Desokupa. The alleged achiever of the corruption plot that allegedly nested in the Ministry of Transportation during the time of the socialist José Luis Ábalos has ratified his accusations against both the former minister and against his right-hand man in that department, Koldo García, but he has also implicated to the PSOE the alleged collection of commissions, sources present in the statement inform elDiario.es.

For around three hours, the businessman has tried to dismantle the thesis of Ábalos, who last Thursday denied the bites that the businessman attributes to him and focused on whoever was his right-hand man. According to the sources consulted, the businessman has reported that he had a role as a “collector” and that he collected up to four million euros in commissions for public works awards with which he later paid bribes to the former minister, Koldo García and even to the PSOE.

At that point in the interrogation, the judge asked him if he had evidence of that supposed corrupt system that the businessman defined as “quota” but, for the moment, he has not provided it. Yes, it has provided screenshots in which alleged agreements for the awarding of public works would appear. In addition, he has quantified the commissions he would have paid to Ábalos in several deliveries at 175,000 euros, some of them at the ministerial headquarters.

In his statement before the National Court, Aldama claimed to have paid commissions directed, among others, to the current minister and then Canarian president Ángel Víctor Torres, to the socialist leader Santos Cerdán and to a senior Treasury official, collaborator of the minister María Jesús Montero. In the Supreme Court, the businessman has confirmed these accusations and has assured that he paid the rent for up to three tourist apartments in the capital that, according to his testimony, Ábalos and Torres used in the company of women.

Before Judge Leopoldo Puente, the commission agent has also detailed several matters that have already been analyzed by the Civil Guard in the National Court: his closeness to Ábalos and Koldo García, which has gone back to 2018, when he allegedly helped the then minister to make a official visit to Mexico. Thus, he has confirmed that his dealings with both are prior to the mask contracts that were the subject of the opening of the investigation.

After his statement, Judge Puente has imposed precautionary measures prohibiting him from leaving the national territory, with withdrawal of his passport, and the obligation to appear fortnightly in the Supreme Court, as requested by the Prosecutor’s Office and the popular accusation exercised by the Party. Popular.

Aldama, the “corrupting nexus”

Aldama, whom the Civil Guard identifies as the “corrupting nexus” of the plot, was summoned this Monday for the first time in the Supreme Court after his statement at the National Court on November 21. In that appearance he spoke of money deliveries to Ábalos, Koldo and Cerdán and tried to involve half a dozen ministers and Sánchez without, until that moment, any more evidence than his word.

After that statement, in a succession of events that reveals prior planning, his lawyer asked Judge Santiago Pedraz, who was keeping him in prison for another reason, to order his release. In the afternoon, in a decision agreed upon by the prosecutor of the case, Luis Pastor, and his head in Anti-Corruption, Alejandro Luzón, the Public Ministry transferred the judge who did not oppose his release. He was released from jail less than 12 hours later.

Days later, he submitted a letter to the Supreme Court in which he claimed to have evidence of that confession and raised suspicions about the former minister by ensuring that he also received bribes for rigging in road contracts tendered by the department he directed between 2018 and 2021. Two reports prepared by the Ministry of Transport and by ADIF refute these accusations by not having found irregularities in the contracts denounced by Aldama. “No processing has even led to the suspicion of any favored treatment or irregular action,” states the technical document prepared by the railway manager.

Ábalos denied everything

Aldama’s statement also came after, last Thursday, Ábalos denied the bites attributed to him by the businessman, focused on his right-hand man, Koldo García, and stuck to his defense.

For three hours, the now deputy of the Mixed Group limited himself to denying his involvement in the plot that supposedly profited from rigged contracts and denying that he had benefited from commissions or perks neither for the mask contracts nor for the highway contracts. He did so with a similar argument: it was not his responsibility to go into detail about the contracts for medical supplies or those for roads that the commission agent has placed under suspicion.

The investigations still have a long way to go, in which the million-dollar mask contracts originating from the investigation will be investigated, but it will also be examined whether the plot extended its influence to other public awards. Koldo García, who decided to remain silent the first time he sat before a judge in this case, is scheduled to appear in the Supreme Court this Tuesday. It remains to be seen if he changes his strategy now.