The judge sends Ábalos to the Supreme Court for his “main role” in the Koldo case

In the initiative, signed this Wednesday, the instructor attributes a “clear and concrete accusation” with “evidential support” for crimes of membership in a criminal organization, influence peddling and bribery based on the battery of evidence compiled by the latest report from the Civil Guard, which places him in a “crucial” role in the awarding of the masks to the instrumental company Soluciones de Gestión and under suspicion of having received “compensation” from the plot for it.

The judge has decided send directly the entire case to the high court so that it is the Criminal Chamber that decides whether to assume the full proceedings or, on the contrary, is left with only the part that affects Ábalos, given that he has jurisdiction and it is necessary, in his opinion, to carry out proceedings that directly affect. Anti-corruption had asked to submit only the latest UCO report that narrowed down the evidence against him, but accusations such as HazteOír were committed to submitting the entire investigation.

Over thirty pages, Moreno reasons the evidence that supports each of the crimes for which he considers that the Supreme Court should investigate Ábalos based on the relationship he maintained with both his right-hand man, the advisor Koldo García, and with the “corruptor” of the plot, the commission agent Víctor de Aldama.

“Consideration” of an “extraordinary” nature

According to what he explains, Aldama made “ordinary” payments to Koldo García of about 10,000 euros per month to have him in his favor, but they were “accompanied by others of an extraordinary nature whose beneficiary would be Ábalos.” He details that “the most obvious that have been observed” to date would be “direct consideration” of the villa in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) that he would have acquired through third parties for the enjoyment of the then minister, and the payment of the rent for the apartment enjoyed by his partner at the time. They are the signs of the bribery that he appreciates.

«These considerations would have as their main reason for being, maintain Aldama’s access to both Koldo and Ábalos for his own benefit and third parties directly related to him,” explains the instructor, to emphasize that the “corrupting action” of the commission agent “allowed him to ensure the achievement of economic profit, based on the criminal corporate structure of his partners, also alleged participants in the organization. criminal object of investigation.

The chalet and the apartment

Regarding the house, in the La Alcaidesa urbanization, he highlights that “there is multiple evidence, at least until October 2021, that would confirm the real use of it by José Luis Ábalos, even having the property to rent it out.” ». Similarly, it concludes that there was a “cause-effect” relationship between the house, worth half a million euros, and the granting of a hydrocarbon operator license by an Aldama partner. When the plan was thwarted, the former minister was “evicted.”

As for the girlfriend’s apartment, for whom he also found employment in two public companies, the 82,298.4 euros that the rent cost from March 2019 to September 2021, says the judge, “were paid by Aldama through people and companies under its control.

Remember at this point that Ábalos and he met in August 2028 because Aldama’s brother was the minister’s escort –“You have the egg to do things”he came to tell him«-. From there, says the instructor, »Aldama responded to day-to-day requests, aimed at satisfying the minister’s needs; needs that were transmitted to him through his brother and Koldo”, in a situation linked to the commission agent’s status as both Globalia advisor and honorary consul in Oaxaca. This, the resolution states, »would have given rise to a closer approach to the highest decision-making levels of MITMA, that is, to Ábalos himself«.

For the instructor, “the durability over time of the criminal organization has been proven.” He cites that “simultaneously” with the purchases from Management Solutions, “the awarding of contracts by other administrations to the Aldama companies to carry out Covid tests or the rescue of Air Europa” and subsequently, “safe conduct to enjoy freedom of movement for Venezuelan citizens or obtaining an operator’s title for Villafuel”, a matter that is the subject of another case at the National Court.

«In this way, the influence exerted by Koldo and Ábalos was not limited to the permanence of both at MITMA. After the departure of the two referred from the Ministry in July 2021, they continue to be observed recurring payments to Koldo by Aldama until September 2022. Likewise, it has been proven through telephone interventions how, even in December 2023 and January 2024, Koldo resorted to Ábalos to act for the benefit of Management Solutions vis-à-vis the Balearic Administration, and the million-dollar debt that they claimed from him,” he specifies.

The decision to buy the masks from Soluciones

This, regarding the accusation of criminal organization. Regarding influence peddling, the judge points out that “Ábalos’ connection” with purchases from Management Solutions is part of the first award, 24.5 million euros from Puertos del Estado. «This reason for being lies in company selection and in the last person who remained in charge of the procedures related to that contract, which would be, According to existing evidence, Ábalos himself», he details.

The scheme, in line with the outline with the UCO, is based on the fact that Aldama “was aware in advance of the need” that the Ministry of Transportation had for masks and contacted the businessman Juan Carlos Cueto, the person behind the company Soluciones de Management, to provide material. He took 6.6 million euros in profits from the business, that is, 13% of the public funds awarded.

«According to the evidence collected to date, through the emails intercepted in the framework of the case, the statements of witnesses, the telephone interventions, the dumping and partial analysis of the electronic devices of those investigated, as well as Like everything that has been learned to date, it can be concluded, in an indicative manner, that the selection of Management Solutions as the winner of the contracts would have come from Aldama and some senior official from the Ministry of Transport with the permanent participation of Koldo. García,” says the reasoned statement. That position would be Ábalos.

A role “of interest” in the rescue of Air Europa

Furthermore, for the judge “the role” of the now deputy in the rescue of Air Europa is of interest, another “relevant” indication regarding participation” in the plot, since the “conversations found in the intercepted electronic devices allow us to appreciate how Aldama he used his relationship with Ábalos to influence the final granting of the rescue to this company», which had to go through the Ministry of Finance then commanded by Nadia Calviño.

In this sense, he highlights several of the messages contained in the UCO report, such as that from the commission agent to the CEO of Globalia, Javier Hidalgo, on July 8, 2020: «There is room on the plane that the boss wants to be in tomorrow the meeting with you and Pino to tell the minister that he has already seen it and sees it as perfect. That meeting, says the reasoned statement, »where Ábalos, Aldama and Hidalgo would attend among others, would be related to the negotiation of a new ICO credit, since seven days later Aldama informed him that third parties were still pending«, just as then I would tell him that the next day they would be »1 (in reference to Pedro Sánchez), the one from the Treasury (it was Nadia Calviño) and him (for Ábalos), and the decision has been made that it will happen.”

«Everything seems to indicate that after the Ábalos-Calviño and Ábalos-Aldama-Hidalgo meetings that took place on July 16, 2020 within the Ministry of Transport and in which the rescue of the Air Europa company was discussed, the situation would have come to fruition. in favor of the aforementioned airline as Ábalos himself transferred to Hidalgo,” the reasoned statement includes.

He refers to other passages, such as when it was once decided that it would be the SEPI and not the ICO credits that would revive the company, Aldama was telling Hidalgo almost in real time that in a Council of Ministers in August 2020, The “boss” was going to talk about the issue with the President of the Government or when once it was announced that the rescue would be studied, the commission agent wrote to him again “underlining Ábalos’s support in his message.” It appreciates that there was “a work by Ábalos so that the rescue prospered”, although the reasoned exposition assumes in its entirety the report on the matter from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and it did not see that this role was decisive.