The commission agent of the Koldo plot, Victor de Aldamadeclared before the Supreme Court that he paid 10,000 euros per month to the former minister José Luis Ábalos and his then advisor, Koldo García, “in good faith” and with the promise of a “future benefit” in the form of public works contract awards. “Not just anyone was asking me,” he stated, according to the statement to which Europa Press has had access. Likewise, he said that he entered the ministry “without any type of control.”
“I’m going to explain it to you very easily so that you understand it. I am a businessman,” he said to the instructor of the Koldo case, Leopoldo Puente, “They were already very clear about how they were going to make, let’s say, those projections, okay? Those projections or those awards, and it’s very simple (…) Like any businessman in this country, when you start a company or start a company, it can go well or badly. It was my risk. “I was taking a risk in a business venture,” he added.
The businessman then clarified that this payment did not lead directly to compensation, but that the risk was worth it. Although at the beginning it was Koldo García who received those 10,000 euros per month, he said, “Then there were moments when Ábalos was present.” “And then there were moments in which Mr. Ábalos, both at his home in El Viso, which is the house assigned to him by the Ministry, and in the Ministry’s office, was given money.”
Likewise, Aldama recognized that due to his participation as a procurer for the acquisition of medical supplies in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic he would have pocketed “about five and a half million” euros. He noted in his statement that part of the commissions that he distributed to both Ábalos and García also would lead to the PSOE. “Mr. Koldo on many occasions told me that part of that money went to the party,” he said, without being able to quantify the exact amount.
The alleged delivery to Cerdán
Continuing with the alleged deliveries of money, the magistrate asked him about the alleged paid 15,000 euros that would have been paid to the current Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán. “This is because one of the companies that was bidding for one of the works in the Basque Country was one of the companies that we were managing at that time,” he said.
“Santos Cerdán seems to be, and this I say seems to be because it is a conversation with Koldo García, he gets very angry and tells Koldo who doesn’t understand why he’s getting into their territory and that this is his issue and that it leads to him, in which, well, if I can say it here, Mr. Koldo, in a direct conversation with me, hanging with him, says I’m going to have to go to Ferraz to tell him face this shitty electrician who has collapsed,” De Aldama revealed.
De Aldama was also asked about the list of alleged public works awards in which there would be notes that, according to the businessman, could be from Ábalos or his former advisor. “It is a list that comes in Ministry format and which Mr. Koldo gives me in his office,” he said.
A relationship of trust
Delving into his relationship with Ábalos, De Aldama boasted of his ancestry within Transportation. “In the end, trust was created, there was an entrance and an exit from the Ministry. I entered without any type of controlbecause my vehicle license plates were authorizedand he entered through the area where the minister enters, in fact, he went up to the main floor through the minister’s elevator,” he explained.
The businessman even maintained in his judicial statement that both Ábalos and his advisor indicated to senior officials at the Ministry that “basically” what the “I told them it was consensual” previously with the two of them.
That trust that De Aldama alluded to was also reflected in other types of actions that he allegedly carried out in favor of Ábalos, specifically as a result of the “extramarital” relationship that the minister had with a woman. The businessman He stated that he was asked “if he could pay” for the apartment that that woman occupied in Madrid.
“We were having dinner at the restaurant in front of his (Ábalos’) house. Well, talking a little about his personal situation with his then wife, well, The topic came up and I said yes.that there was no problem,” he indicated.
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