The judge asks the Supreme Court to investigate Ábalos for his “main role” in the ‘Koldo plot’

The judge investigating the ‘Koldo case’ in the National Court, Ismael Moreno, has asked the Supreme Court to investigate the former Minister of Transport and current congressman José Luis Ábalos given the “founded and serious indications” of his “main role” in a criminal organization that allegedly profited from the sale of masks during the pandemic. In a reasoned statement, the magistrate attributes to Ábalos a “clear and concrete accusation” through a series of indications that show his alleged participation in crimes of membership in a criminal organization, influence peddling and bribery.

In his resolution, the judge attributes to Ábalos a crime of belonging to a criminal organization because he occupied a “main role” in the network created by businessman Víctor de Aldama to obtain business with public administrations. Regarding the crime of influence peddling, the magistrate concludes that his “intervention” would be accredited both for the awarding of contracts for the supply of masks to the company in the plot—Company Management and Support Solutions—and for two public companies—INECO and TRAGSATEC—hired the person who was then his partner.

Finally, the instructor attributes to the former minister the crime of bribery linked to the chalet in the Cadiz town of La Alcaidesa that the plot made available to him “as payment for his mediation in the awarding of contracts for the supply of medical supplies.” Another indication that would prove the bribery, according to the judge, is the payment of the rent for the apartment where his partner lived in the center of Madrid, from March 2019 to September 2021, for an amount of 88,101.43 euros and which he paid Aldama through people and companies that were under his control.

The magistrate recalls that the beginning of this case focused on the investigation of the mask business and that it allowed Aldama’s privileged relationship in the then Ministry of Public Works with Koldo García, who was Ábalos’ advisor, to be revealed. Thus, it states that Aldama paid Koldo on a recurring and periodic basis the amount of 10,000 euros per month until September 2022, more than a year after the departure of both from Transport, in July 2021.

These “ordinary” payments, according to the judge, would be accompanied by other “extraordinary” ones of which Ábalos would be the beneficiary. The most obvious: the purchase of the chalet in Cádiz and the rental of the apartment where his partner lived. These compensations, according to the magistrate, would aim to “maintain access” to both Koldo and Ábalos. A “corrupting action” that allowed him to “ensure the achievement of economic profit,” according to the document sent to the Supreme Court.

In his account of the facts, the magistrate affirms that throughout these months of investigation it has been possible to prove the “link” of Ábalos with the contracts for medical supplies awarded to Soluciones de Gestión. That company went from billing just over 100,000 euros in 2018 and nothing in 2019 to earning more than 50 million euros in 2020 in the heat of a dozen emergency contracts, awarded without publicity, by different public organizations. Among them, two public entities within the perimeter of the Ministry of Transport: Puertos del Estado and Adif.

According to the judge, Aldama was aware “in advance” of the need to make these contracts and it was he who selected Soluciones de Gestión together with “some senior official” from the Ministry of Transportation and with the “permanent participation” of Koldo García.

The judge notes that the audit commissioned by Óscar Puente, current head of Transportation, points to “that Ábalos himself and/or his Cabinet could have been the one to contact Soluciones, negotiate with them and modify the purpose of the emergency so that it finally coincided with what was offered by the company.” These are considerations that “coincid” with the report of the UCO of the Civil Guard that tightened the siege on the former minister.

The rescue of Air Europa

On the other hand, the judge also highlights the “role” of Ábalos in the rescue of Air Europa during the pandemic. The airline received hundreds of millions of euros in government loans to avoid bankruptcy at a time when confinement brought global air travel to a grinding halt. According to the reasoned statement, from the conversations found in the intercepted electronic devices it is deduced that Aldama, who was then a director of the airline, “used his relationship with Ábalos to influence the final granting” of that rescue.

Moreno mentions the meetings held on those dates between senior government officials with Aldama and Javier Hidalgo, son of the founder of Globalia and former CEO of the company. And he points out that “after” the meetings between Ábalos and the then Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño; and other meetings held between Ábalos, Aldama and Hidalgo “the situation would have worked in favor” of Air Europa.