José Luis Ábalos, Minister of Transport between 2018 and 2021, a position that he combined with that of number three or Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, goes this Thursday to testify voluntarily before the Supreme Court, which is investigating him for alleged crimes of belonging to an illicit organization. embezzlement, bribery and influence peddling in the context of the case known as the Koldo case, facts that could be amplified by the serious accusations that the commission agent has leveled against him Victor de Aldama. “I want to testify,” he told the press this Wednesday. Sources of his defense advance, in fact, that he will answer both his lawyer and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the accusations grouped under the representation of the Popular Party.
The High Court appreciates indications that the politician could benefit financially from public contracts to bring medical supplies to Spain during the pandemic granted to the instrumental company Management Solutions for 53 million euros, in which both Aldama himself and the person who was Ábalos’ advisor, Koldo García.
The case in the Supreme Court is the result of the one previously investigated in the Central Court of Instruction 2, which opened proceedings in 2023 due to a complaint from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the result, in turn, of a year of investigations. The result was the so-called Delorme operation, carried out by the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard which, in February 2024, arrested Koldo García, among others.
In the National Court the proceedings have been developed in two directions. On the one hand, with the UCO of the Civil Guard turning over, processing and analyzing the dozens of electronic devices seized from the different investigated. On the other hand, by taking statements from defendants and witnesses of interest and, in particular, from public officials who had some relationship with the acquisition of masks from Management Solutions. The key was to find out who gave the order to contract with that company and not with another. And that is how the siege tightened around Ábalos, because the most repeated conclusion in the interrogation room was that the decision came from the minister and/or his cabinet.
Two alleged bribes and bribery charges
When this thesis seemed already consolidated, the qualitative leap arrived in the form of an official letter from the UCO. Crossing emails, text messages, notes and other seized documentation, they supported the origin of the decision and presented a hypothesis that explained it: the minister would have obtained a personal benefit in exchange for what the investigators translate into two specific alleged bribes: the apartment of Ábalos’ girlfriend and the villa in La Alcaidesa, both through the intermediation of Aldama.
As for the first, it was 88,000 euros that an Aldama partner assumed to pay for the rent of the apartment of Jessica, the minister’s friend, in the center of Madrid. As for the second, it is the 250,000 euro house that a businesswoman close to the commission agent acquired and put at the service of Ábalos, for “his enjoyment.” Investigators point out that the house is due both to its relationship with the commission agent’s businesses and to the management that he was trying to obtain for a third party, Claudio Rivas, who was seeking a hydrocarbon license from the Ministry of Industry. In fact, the former minister was evicted from the chalet when that license was rejected.
«Main role» in the plot
With these premises, the instructor of the National Court, Ismael Moreno, presented a reasoned statement to the Supreme Court so that it could investigate the accused Ábalos upon concluding that there are “founded and serious indications” that he had a “main role” in the alleged criminal organization set up around him to enrich himself through a corrupt operation in the Ministry of Transportation, taking advantage of it precisely.
The judge explained, based on reports from the Civil Guard, that the businessman and commission agent paid by the Soluciones de Gestión company, Víctor de Aldama, allegedly made “ordinary” payments to Koldo García of about 10,000 euros per month to have him in his favor. that they were “accompanied by others of an extraordinary nature whose beneficiary would be Ábalos.”
“The main purpose of these considerations would be to maintain Aldama’s access to both Koldo and Ábalos for the benefit of himself and third parties directly related to him,” he reasoned, and stressed that the “corrupting action” of the commission agent “allowed him to ensure the achievement of economic profit, based on the criminal corporate structure of its partners, also alleged participants in the criminal organization under investigation.
He asked to testify voluntarily
The Supreme Court saw indications that “the facts described (in the reasoned exposition of the National Court), without prejudice to what may result from the investigation, could constitute, according to the reasoned exposition, a crime of belonging to criminal organization, influence peddling, bribery and embezzlement.
The case fell to Judge Leopoldo Puente, who opened proceedings on “the awarding of contracts between the Administration or entities linked to it to private companies or equivalent conduct” with Ábalos, Aldama and Koldo García as an inseparable trio. But by then, many things had already changed: The commissioner, in a voluntary statement at the National Court, charged against the other two (among other people from the Government and the PSOE) and stressed that he had given the former minister more than 600,000 euros in bites and to the one who was his advisor, more than 250,000.
Despite this, Ábalos expressed his willingness to testify voluntarily. On December 4, he confirmed to the judge that he agreed to do so a week later, as planned, and just that same day, Aldama presented a brief of allegations before the High Court expanding his accusations: he implicates the former minister in illegal commissions for public works awards. that would have been pre-awarded and trusted to the execution of a contract for the purchase of a property worth almost two million euros. He assures that Ábalos would keep it if the successful bidders did not comply with the agreed bite.
The word of Ábalos
This matter is thus not part of the hard core of the case and in fact, this contract predates the events being investigated. However, it will be the subject of interrogation, like all the aspects that surfaced in the National Court (the possible role that Ábalos played in facilitating the rescue of Air Europa, for example) that go beyond the masks. Ábalos’s statement will be, however, only the beginning towards his clarification: it will be his word against the indications of the summary and Aldama’s new accusations.
The appearance responds to the prerogative that those certified have to be able to voluntarily come to testify without the need for the judge to obtain the request from the Congress of Deputies to be able to formally charge him and carry out proceedings that affect his person. The point is that as long as this procedure is not carried out, the investigators’ hands are tied: they cannot make essential inquiries about matters such as, for example, Ábalos’s assets, his banking transactions or the seizure of his email or mobile phone.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court determined that the popular accusations will be brought together under the representation of the Popular Party, since it was the first to appear in the case. Given the possibility that this implies that the other seven who appear pushing the case will be left out of the interrogation, Iustitia Europa and Hazte Oír sent separate letters to the Court to guarantee that they will be present, even if they must intervene through the PP lawyer.
Ábalos, oblivious to the comings and goings of popular accusations, did comment to the press on Wednesday that he was “in the mood” to “dismantle the lies” that, he claims, Aldama has spread against him.
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