The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, which is carrying out the investigation of the Koldo case, suspects that the plot made “recurrent” payments of 10,000 euros to Koldo García, the former advisor of the former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, who was responsible for the Public Works and Transport portfolios (2018-2021). The agents have reached this conclusion after analyzing the content of several telephones tapped in February during the arrest of the main people involved, as well as the study of handwritten notes seized – among them, one found in the home of the former socialist collaborator – .
The UCO, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and Judge Ismael Moreno, instructor of the National Court, maintain that Koldo García collected illegal commissions from the corrupt network – headed by Juan Carlos Cueto, leader of the Grupo Cueto business conglomerate, and Víctor de Aldama, president of Zamora CF—in exchange for opening the doors of the Public Administration to obtain contracts for the supply of masks and medical supplies in the worst of the pandemic. The agents have detected a “remarkable” increase in the assets of Ábalos' former advisor (close to 1.5 million euros), which he allegedly used to acquire several houses through front men. García also handled enormous amounts of cash. According to the summary, the contacts of Koldo García and the rest of the components of the corrupt network have been maintained to this day.
During the arrests of the main suspects, the agents seized documentation and mobile phones, which they have begun to analyze. And these have provided new indications that “Aldama could make cash payments to Koldo on a recurring basis,” according to the UCO. Among those seized, investigators highlight the content of a WhatsApp group called “4 musketeers”, where the president of Zamora CF and three other detainees participate. On February 23, 2022, one of them, Javier Serrano, stated directly in that conversation: “Yesterday they paid K.” To which another interlocutor responds: “Wasn't he going to be paid in the Dominican (…) And the other 10?” “I don't have answers to your questions,†Serrano then answers. Through other tests, the Civil Guard had already identified that alias of K like Koldo García's.
Added to all this are more clues. “On April 1, 2022, César (Moreno, also arrested) sends Serrano an image of a screenshot with a creation date of 11:03 a.m. of the same day. It should be noted that under the title of “fixed expenses†, the reference ‘K 10,000†appears, underlines the UCO, which emphasizes: “This reference (…) could mean a payment to K of 10,000 euros. recurrently.” According to the investigators, that same day another note was created inside one of the seized phones that breaks down, also under the concept “fixed expenses”, a series of items that add up to a total of 99,100 euros, distributed in “ €œdifferent amounts' linked 'to different people or concepts'. “It should be noted that the second item is K 10,000, which could be a payment to Koldo García in the amount of 10,000 euros,” the agents insist.
“This point, as well as the allusion to fixed expenses, is revealing if we take into account that during the search of Koldo's habitual residence the following handwritten annotation was found,” continues the Civil Guard, which then reproduces a sheet of a notebook seized from Koldo García; in which, under the word “income”, references are made to “METALLIC” (in capital letters in the original) and amounts of 10,000 euros.
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To strengthen the thesis that the plot moved large amounts of cash, the UCO also includes in its reports several photographs of cash that some investigators sent to each other by cell phone. In one of these images, for example, “two wads of cash bills can be seen, one of them inside a transparent plastic bag and another gummed with bills of different values,” the researchers from the armed institute.
The National Court is keeping a summary open on the Koldo case for alleged crimes of money laundering, criminal organization, bribery and influence peddling.
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