The judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno, who instructs what is known as the Koldo case, maintains that the alleged achiever of the mask contracts plot, the president of Zamora CF, Víctor de Aldama, had “a special pass” to Ministry of Transport when it was led by the socialist José Luis Ábalos.
This is stated in the interlocutory order issued yesterday by the instructor in which he decreed the ban on leaving the country of the investigated businessman Juan Carlos Cueto, who would be behind the company Soluciones de Gestión, which took away 54 million in public contracts from sanitary material during the hardest moments of the pandemic. In this resolution, to which La Vanguardia has had access, the magistrate analyzes the e-mails and calls that were intercepted by the Civil Guard.
From the observation of the telephone interventions, the magistrate accepts the thesis of the Prosecutor’s Office, which states that the calls would show that Aldama “had a special pass to Mitma” (Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda). Specifically, from a conversation, according to the investigators, it would appear that Aldama “would have influenced” the ministry so that the investigated contracts were awarded to Soluciones de Gestión”. The latter, in particular, generated “a direct economic benefit of 5.5 million euros”. “This benefit was transferred to the Aldama companies”, he continues.
As reflected in Moreno’s interlocutory report, the alleged commissioner of the plot had “prior knowledge” that the ministry needed to acquire PPE (personal protective equipment) for its dependents. It was after having this information that Aldama “presented the offer” of Soluciones de Gestión to the ministry. And then, later, the selection of the society at the epicenter of the plot “was adopted in the bosom of the Ministry of Transport”.
Behind Soluciones de Gestión, according to Anticorruption, was Juan Carlos Cueto, who went to the National Court yesterday, requested by magistrate Moreno.
His appearance did not last more than half an hour because he only answered the questions of his lawyer. With the lesson learned, he defended that behind the investigated mask contracts there are no hidden irregular commissions, that the price of the sanitary material was fair and that he never intended to take advantage of it in the hardest times of the pandemic, but acted in defense of the citizens. A story that has nothing to do with the one presented by the Prosecutor’s Office, which places him at the top of the corrupt plot.
In addition to the telephone conversations that took place, Judge Moreno also mentions several emails in his interlocutory hearing. In one of these emails, Aldama gives orders to another of the businessmen at the epicenter of the plot, Iñigo Rotaeche. “By the way, tell him that he has to lower the price, that I’m talking to the ministry.”
In this email, which appears in the summary, there is a copy of Cueto and Koldo García, with the official email address of the Ministry of Transport. The conversation, in which a flight schedule is finalized, took place on April 13, 2020. One month after the central government declared a state of alarm due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Anti-corruption, in its complaint filed last September, already pointed out that Aldama would have turned to Ábalos’ ex-advisor to “speed up procedures” with the Ministry of Transport “in the context of recruitment during the pandemic”.
“By virtue of the personal relationship between Aldama and Koldo García, and in the context of the facts being investigated, Aldama could have taken advantage of his personal relationship with García. The direct link between the two begins before the awarding of the investigated contracts and continues beyond these awards”, insists the resolution.
