The National Court releases Aldama after his statement before the judge of the ‘Koldo case’

The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz has released the alleged ‘obtainer’ of the Koldo casethe businessman Victor de Aldamain the case of a hydrocarbon fraud. The judge’s decision comes after the request of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Officeand after the confessions made this Thursday by the businessman in his voluntary statement before the magistrate investigating the Koldo caseIsmael Moreno.

Aldama was in provisional prison from the past October 10 when Judge Pedraz ordered Aldama’s admission for a VAT fraud on hydrocarbons that exceeds 180 million euros. De Aldama supposedly played the role of mediator in this plot that agents from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are investigating.

Hours after appearing at the Koldo caseJudge Pedraz has responded to the businessman’s request, supported by the Prosecutor’s Office, and has agreed as precautionary measures that he appear weekly before the court, the establishment of an address to be located and the prohibition of him leaving the country without judicial authorization.

Víctor de Aldama is being investigated in the National Court in two different cases and courts: the alleged hydrocarbon fraud that has kept him in provisional prison until this Thursday and is being investigated by Judge Pedraz, and the one known as Koldo casewhich revolves around alleged commissions on public mask contracts.

It is in this last case, investigated by Judge Ismael Moreno, where he has declared and has committed to collaborate in all the procedures that are open.

The “express recognition” of the facts in that appearance and the “confession of the crimes”, some new, is what has exclusively led Anti-Corruption to support the request for freedom in the other case that kept him imprisoned. The Prosecutor’s Office considers that his confession distorts the risk of destruction of evidence and mitigates the risk of escape, which was decisive in imprisoning him for the hydrocarbons case.

At the end of his appearance at the Koldo casethe businessman’s defense has asked Judge Pedraz for his freedom. De Aldama left the Soto del Real prison early last night.

Commissions and procedures for the Government

In his statement before Judge Moreno, De Aldama has implicated the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in the frustrated visit to Spain of the Venezuelan Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, in 2020, and has recounted efforts in favor of the Executive with countries such as Mexico and Venezuela. since 2019, and has explained that he brokered public contracts for masks during the pandemic in favor of the company Soluciones de Gestión, which obtained awards of more than 50 million euros. possibility of destruction of evidence.

The businessman has said that for this work he charged and billed commissions, but he has also mentioned that he made different cash payments from the Dominican Republic to the then Minister of Transportation, José Luis Ábalos, of about 400,000 euros; and his advisor, Koldo García, of about 250,000 euros, to whom he even said: “I am not the Bank of Spain and you are already going too far.” Víctor de Aldama has also spoken of a cash payment of 15,000 euros to the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, which he has classified as “absolutely false.”