Agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard have arrested four people this Monday as part of the investigation of a million-dollar hydrocarbon fraud for which Víctor de Aldama, the businessman who is testifying today in the Supreme Court for his alleged involvement in another case, the one that affects the former Minister of Transportation José Luis Ábalos. Among those detained today is Carmen Pano, who has been claiming in the media that she delivered 90,000 euros in cash to the PSOE following instructions from Aldama.
Investigation sources rule out that the arrest of Pano and the other three people have any connection with the Koldo case or with that statement of alleged bites made by the arrested woman. Along with her, Pano’s daughter, who was Aldama’s girlfriend, and two other businessmen have also been detained. The UCO operation includes searches in Madrid, Zaragoza, Seville, Zaragoza and Calatayud.
The second arrest of Víctor de Aldama by the Civil Guard occurred in October. If in March he had been arrested in the case of alleged bribes for public contracts during a pandemic, on this second occasion he was attributed a degree of leadership in a plot that would have defrauded the Treasury of 182 million euros in the hydrocarbon sector.
After his arrest, Judge Santiago Pedraz ordered his entry into provisional prison. However, the same magistrate had to agree to his release five weeks later because the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office considered that his statement in the National Court for the Koldo plot also represented collaboration to clarify the hydrocarbon fraud.
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