Almost two years ago, in June 2021, the Investigating Court number 8 of Barcelona revealed the illegal commissions of between 200,000 and 400,000 euros that the then third vice president of the Almería Provincial Council, Óscar Liria, allegedly charged for a fraudulent purchase contract of masks, suits and gloves in 2020. The winner was the company Azor Corporate Ibérica —whose owner, Kilian López, is also charged—, and the amount was two million euros. The investigation of the UCO of the Civil Guard, which appears in the summary and to which EL PAÍS has now had access, concludes that almost half of those two million remained in the hands of López. The agents have also found indications that the exalted PP official —already expelled from the party and from office— tried to launder the money obtained from the bribes through a company that had provided services to the Diputación in the stage in which the that he was responsible for his Development area.
According to the UCO investigations, on April 8, 2020, the Almería Provincial Council awarded Azor Corporate Ibérica a contract for the “supply of FFP-2 masks, protective overalls and nitrile gloves to meet the needs derived from the protection of people against covid-19″. The contract was for 2,036,186.34 euros: 1,999,886.24 euros plus 36,300 euros of financial and management expenses. On April 14, the Provincial Council made the bank transfer for the total amount; and that same day Azor transferred 1,999,886.24 euros to a Hong Kong entity, in favor of Ligroup China Co. Limited —exactly the amount of the contract less the 36,000 euros in financial expenses―. Six days later, the Chinese company allocated 945,297.61 euros to Corpfam Global Investment, whose sole administrator was López, as a commission.
This movement of capital allows the UCO to deduce that there are “solid beginnings that, on the occasion of the public contract awarded to Azor Corporate, public funds would have been diverted to the private interests of Kilian López”; and. “As consideration for the award of said contract, López would have made various payments,” supposedly to Liria. The Civil Guard was investigating López for linking him to a drug trafficking, arms trafficking and money laundering plot, when they realized that he had also been awarded a contract for the supply of masks by the Diputación de Almeria.
The path of these new investigations led to the illegal commissions charged, supposedly, by Liria, then a high-ranking official of the PP and the Almería Provincial Council —the province with the greatest penetration of the popular in Andalusia. A leader who, moreover, is the nephew of the mayor of Fines since 2003, Rodrigo Sánchez Simón, who in turn is related to Kilian López. And it is that Fines and the entire family that orbits around Liria and Sánchez Simón also have a substantial role in this plot. Azor has its registered office in that Almeria town of 2,200 inhabitants. Regarding the blood relationship, Corpfam Global Investment, the company that receives the million euros from the contract for the masks by the Chinese company, had been managed by Liria’s brother, Francisco Jesús, and López’s aunt until 2018, which is when the latter enters the mercantile.
Thousands of euros hidden in clothes
According to the UCO, López paid Liria in installments between 200,000 and 400,000 euros for her mediation in the award of the contract for the masks, most of it through her aunt. When the Civil Guard arrested Liria at his home in Fines on June 15, 2021, they found 26,250 euros in cash: 8,000, 7,800 and 6,300 euros in separate envelopes, 1,600 in a jacket pocket and 2,550 in other clothing, which he alleged which were gifts for her future wedding. That same day, the agents observed how Liria’s cousin, and the mayor’s son, left the house, “inserting a package in the back seat of the vehicle.” That package contained, as the investigators found after stopping the car, a box with 119,950 euros.
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At his sister’s house, the agents found 31,700 euros distributed in four envelopes.
The UCO also suspects that Liria used her family environment and the business environment of some relatives to launder the money received from illegal commissions through the acquisition of two high-end cars for her father and his girlfriend —also investigated―, through the companies Almiraya Gestión y Asesoramiento and Gesa Andalucía SL And he believes that he created a system of false invoices to hide the origin of the funds, through his brother, Francisco Liria —also accused—, and his cousin and son of the mayor of Fines, Rodrigo Sánchez, who is the sole administrator of both companies.
The president, to Liria: “You have to see the one you have tied up!”
Among the documentation compiled by the UCO in its report are WhatsApp conversations between the president of the Provincial Council, Javier Aureliano García, and Liria in which the former, jokingly, in April 2020 tells who was then his Number Three: “Óscar… you have to see the one you have involved with the masks!!!!”. Liria replies: “Yaaaaa, but I want you to see how the situation is, man. I don’t want you to see yourself without having material for the residency…”. “You’re going to cause me to set fire to the masks,” Aureliano replies, to which Liria replies with a “Haaaa”, which Aureliano continues with a “Shut up yaaaaaa”. Liria ends the conversation: “Well, man, this is getting very ugly.”
The delivery of this consignment of masks not only took a long time, but part of the batches arrived in a defective state, which determined the Provincial Council to approve on June 1, 2021 —15 days before the arrests— a decree to terminate the contract with Azor due to breach by the company. Liria also intervened in this process, as can be seen from the conversations held with López. The UCO maintains that the Diputación initially claimed from Azor an amount of between 200,000 and 300,000 euros and that, after the allegations, in which the then vice president mediated, the figure was reduced to 38,000 euros. “Answer by saying that you do not agree and arguing well and everything will be resolved,” Liria tells López in a February 2021 conversation.
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