The judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno, who is investigating the case known as Koldo, maintains that the alleged commission agent of the mask contract scheme – the president of Zamora CF Víctor de Aldama – had “a special pass” in the Ministry of Transport when it was directed by José Luis Ábalos. The magistrate, in a document to which La Vanguardia has had access, assures that there is a “personal relationship” between the former advisor of the former minister, Koldo García, and this businessman, who knew in advance that the ministry needed to acquire medical supplies in the first moments of the pandemic.
The magistrate reaches these conclusions after analyzing some telephone interventions in the case carried out by the Civil Guard. From them it would be deduced that Aldama “could have taken advantage” in the framework of the contracts that are the subject of the investigation, the amount of which would amount to 54 million euros. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office maintained in its complaint – which was filed last September – that both Aldama and the businessman Juan Carlos Cueto are “de facto responsible” for the contracts with the company Soluciones de Gestión. Thanks to them, Aldama obtained a profit of 5.5 million euros and Cueto 9.6 million.
In the same order, Judge Moreno refers to the relationship that both maintained with Ábalos’s former advisor, the epicenter of the plot that has led the PSOE to provisionally suspend from militancy the man of maximum confidence of the President of the Government, Pedro. Sanchez. The instructor, based on the evidence collected by the investigators, points out that Aldama made “possible deliveries of money” to Koldo García through Cueto, who precisely testified today before the judge at the National Court. After his statement, as requested by the prosecution, he has decreed a ban on leaving the country without judicial authorization.
From the observation of the telephone interventions, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that these would demonstrate that Aldama “had a special pass at MITMA.” In addition, he points out another phone call in which García assures that the alleged commission agent “solved the problems he had to be able to execute and bring what I needed from outside” in reference to the shipments of masks investigated.
In addition to the intercepted telephone conversations, Judge Moreno also mentions several emails in his order. In one of them, Aldama gives orders to another of the businessmen also located at the epicenter of the plot, Iñigo Rotaeche. “By the way, tell him that he has to lower the price, that I will talk about it with the Ministry.” In that email, which appears in the summary, Cueto and the address of Koldo García are copied with the domain of the Ministry of Transportation. This conversation, in which a flight schedule was finalized, took place on April 13, 2020. One month after the state of alarm was declared due to the coronavirus.