David Sánchez, younger brother of the President of the Government, will have to testify as a defendant before a court that has been investigating for months whether his appointment as a senior official in the Badajoz Provincial Council was a favored treatment and whether, in addition, he illegally enriched himself with a public salary. The Civil Guard, after analyzing thousands of emails, has found no evidence that anyone decided to create the position ad hoc for him in 2016 and concludes that the accusations about his supposed fortune, denounced by Clean Hands, are based on a hoax published in the media.
The case began half a year ago in a court in Badajoz after the far-right pseudo-union filed a complaint with various clippings published in the media. Information, according to which, the president’s brother received a public salary from the Badajoz Provincial Council “without going to work.” He would also have, according to the complaint, almost a million and a half euros in BBVA shares.
The case, driven by accusations such as the PP, Vox, Manos Cleans, HazteOir or Abogados Crisitanos, has evolved to the summons of Sánchez’s brother and other people under investigation, among whom is the socialist president of the Provincial Council. Possible crimes of embezzlement, prevarication and influence peddling are being investigated. David Sánchez will testify after the Central Operational Unit (UCO) has not found evidence that reinforces the main accusations of Clean Hands. Quite the contrary, the report from the armed institute dismantles the accusation that the brother of the chief executive became a millionaire overnight thanks to some actions.
In its complaint, Clean Hands stated that the assets of Sánchez’s brother “reach two million euros”, the majority corresponding to “1.4 million in BBVA shares.” A few weeks before, a media outlet had analyzed his asset declarations and deducted that amount. The Civil Guard dismisses this accusation, explaining that, probably, everything is due to an original error in the journalistic calculation that Manos Médicas later reproduced in its complaint. That news, the agents say, confused the face value of the shares in euros with the number of shares. Using the calculator on the BBVA website would have resulted in the unrealistic figure of 1.4 million euros. A second error regarding the revaluation of those shares gave rise to the final amount.
“It appears that the data provided in the complaint is the result of a probable erroneous use of the data,” says the Civil Guard. The judge, in the summons of David Sánchez, echoes this conclusion and asks BBVA to clarify the number of shares it had in the bank and their value.
Creating your job
A good part of the report is dedicated to analyzing thousands of emails from workers and senior officials of the Badajoz Provincial Council to look for evidence that the two jobs held by Sánchez – coordinator of the activities of the music conservatories in the province, first; and head of the Performing Arts Office of the Provincial Council, later – were created irregularly or expressly to be awarded to him due to his family relationship with Pedro Sánchez. Both had the category of “senior management.”
However, the creation of the first of these positions began to take shape on October 11, 2016, just when Pedro Sánchez had just been removed from the general secretariat of the PSOE. The report, which has also given rise to the investigating judge to request more information from the Badajoz Provincial Council, reviews how at a given time various officials of the organization raised the possibility of creating a senior management position to coordinate the different conservatories.
Until then, the UCO highlights, this need had not arisen. In fact, the position for the coordination of the conservatories was created on October 11, 2016. And the report includes an email in which just six days before the president of the Badajoz Provincial Council, the socialist Miguel Ángel Gallardo, also accused, describes as “excessive” a proposal to create new jobs made by another employee of the organization. That proposal did not include the position that Sánchez’s brother later ended up occupying.
The report also states that the director of one of the centers, the ‘Bonifacio Gil’ conservatory in Badajoz, stated by email that this coordination position could be “appreciated” but that the real priority was to find a new “piano” teacher. accompaniment” and someone to take care of the library, which had not been able to open for “quite a long time” due to lack of staff.
The Civil Guard concludes that, at least based on the seized emails, it cannot know who came up with the idea of creating this position. “It is unknown who came from the initiative and the primary needs that were intended to be covered,” the report states. Furthermore, the researchers emphasize that the positions were “evolving.” At first, it was proposed that he manage only the higher conservatory, but that responsibility ended up leading to a “senior management” position that coordinated the two conservatories in the province.
People whose emails have been analyzed by the UCO will have to appear before the judge investigating the case. In addition to summoning the president’s brother, he has also called to testify the president of the Provincial Council, the aforementioned Miguel Ángel Gallardo, who is general secretary of the PSOE of Extremadura, and positions such as the then director of the area of Culture and Citizen Action, several deputies delegates or the head of human resources.
A third ramification of the case initiated at the request of Clean Hands is whether Pedro Sánchez’s brother received a public salary for not working or, at least, for not going to work in person. In this regard, the Civil Guard does not issue conclusions and refers to the annexes collected in recent months.
Until the UCO report, David Sánchez’s defense had focused on discrediting the value that a complaint from Clean Hands, based solely on press clippings, could have to justify the opening of a judicial case. His lawyer’s writings criticize that such weak evidence has led to the adoption of such burdensome measures as the interception of communications, alluding to the thousands of emails investigated. However, the Provincial Court of Badajoz, the highest court, has so far endorsed the instruction developed by Judge Beatriz Biedma.
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