Three years of investigation, seven judicial pieces, accusation of Podemos and several of its top officials such as Juan Carlos Monedero or Juanma del Olmo, have seen their closure today when the dismissal of the last piece that remained open.
In a resolution that La Vanguardia has had, the head of the Court of Instruction number 42 of Madrid Juan José Escalonilla has archived the piece that investigated the finances of the party founded by Pablo Iglesias.
More than a year ago, the judge was looking for an expert report to analyze whether the hiring of the Mexican company Neurona to campaign for the 2019 elections for 363,000 euros was correct or if, on the contrary, it was inflated. A few weeks ago, the instructor received the report in which he stated that the price paid then was within the market price.
The expert has confirmed that, contrary to what was stated by the complainant and the Police, the work that was paid to neuron was actually done, that these were at the market price, that workers from Mexico came to Spain to carry out the campaign is carried out and that the payment is correctly credited.
With all this, Escalonilla concludes that “there is no indicative evidence that the cash of the electoral account from which the amount of said contract was paid was diverted for purposes other than those contemplated in the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), reason for which the alleged commission of a crime of misappropriation of electoral funds nor of the electoral crime cannot be appreciated.”
The matter began with the complaint of a former lawyer for the dismissed team about a series of alleged irregularities by Pablo Iglesias’ team. Fingerprint awards, bonuses, irregularities in the construction of his headquarters, an alleged nanny paid by the party or the solidarity fund are just some of the suspicions that were raised in the investigating court number 42 of Madrid.
Judge Juan José Escalonilla opened up to seven pieces to find out the ins and outs of Podemos’s finances. Since July 2020, he has been trying to find out if the party had acted irregularly. The instructor went so far as to accuse the formation of four of its leaders, as well as one of the founders, Juan Carlos Monedero, among others.
The Prosecutor’s Office never saw a future for this investigation and supported the request to file each of the pieces. After much searching, the magistrate filed a large part of the cases, until he settled the last one that was open to him. The emergence of Vox as a popular accusation did not facilitate the judicial process, by incessantly appealing each decision of the judge to shelve the various pieces. The Provincial Court of Madrid has accused the far-right party of attempting to carry out a “general audit” of Podemos’ finances in court and closed the option of continuing to investigate.
