The general coordinator of the PP, Elías Bendodo, has thrown balls out this Friday in his statement as a witness before the judge in the case of an attempted bite by anticovid briefcases for the Junta de Andalucía. Bendodo has declared by videoconference before the Investigating Court 2 of Seville that he is investigating the attempt of a millionaire commission in the midst of a pandemic in 2020, and both he and the president of the Andalusian Parliament and former Minister of Health, Jesús Aguirre, have alleged that both limited themselves to promote the investigation that uncovered the frustrated commission.
The Asturian businessman Félix Guerrero denounced to the Board the alleged extortion of five million for the purchase of 107 briefcases to detect covid in second wave patients, and the Andalusian Government took the case to the Prosecutor’s Office. Before the formal complaint from the Executive, both Bendodo and Aguirre knew about the alleged bribery for three months and this Friday they explained their efforts to finally bring the case to justice.
Bendodo has reported that the Asturian businessman shared with him a summer resort in Marbella and that when he told him that he was importing sanitary material against covid, he limited himself to informing him of the email enabled by the Board for offers, according to sources of the case present in the declaration. Later, the businessman told him about the extortion attempt and Bendodo told him that his deputy counselor Antonio Sanz —today a Presidential advisor— would telephone him, who called him but it took him three months to report the matter to the Prosecutor’s Office, to Guerrero’s desperation. Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez has not asked questions and the Prosecutor’s Office has not attended the statements in the Sevillian courts.
The businessman assured that he gave his offer to Bendodo, but he has argued before the magistrate that he did not remember it as it was “times of urgency”, in reference to the seriousness of the second wave of covid, according to said legal sources. When the businessman later told Sanz about the extortion attempt suffered by the ex-adviser of the Ministry of Health, Guillermo González, the Minister of the Presidency contacted González before contacting the denouncing businessman. Bendodo has argued that he does not know why Sanz chose to find out about the matter through the commission agent accused of bribery and influence peddling instead of the complaining businessman. When Sanz and González met, the Deputy Minister informed the former Health Advisor of the internal investigation carried out against him, which, according to the police, allowed him to eliminate evidence.
For his part, the president of the Andalusian Chamber, Jesús Aguirre, explained to the judge that, when he was notified of the extortion attempt, he put the matter in the hands of his number two Catalina García —today the Minister of Health—, who channeled the file to expel the former adviser. Article 412 of the Criminal Procedure Law exempts Aguirre from testifying as a witness in court, but not Bendodo, although the judge has allowed him to testify by videoconference. The parties consulted were unaware of the reasons for the favored treatment.
The doubts in this case focus on why the denouncing businessman did not submit his offer through the ordinary route, through the General Directorate of Economic Management of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS), but instead presented it to Bendodo, and then the attended directly to María Jesús Pareja, head of the organization centralized by the Board, belonging to the Valme Hospital in Seville. When he was later the victim of the extortion attempt, the businessman called Bendodo again instead of bringing him to justice.
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In parallel, the businessman obtained a refusal from the SAS for his offer of anticovid briefcases, and the Ministry commissioned a second analysis to study their quality, although it was also unsuccessful. Sanz explained that this second consultation was carried out at the insistence of the employer and to show him that they were interested in verifying the quality of his sanitary material.
For the alleged bribery, the former commission agent, the intermediary businessman Manuel García Gallardo, his sister María García Gallardo and the adviser of both Cristina Romero are charged.
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