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 in b 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 phones tapped in February during the arrest of the main people involved, as well as the study of seized handwritten notes – 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 the 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 “notable” increase in 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 large 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 that 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 [República] Dominican? […] And the other 10?” “I don’t have answers to your questions,” Serrano then answers. Through other evidence, 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, Caesar [Moreno, también arrestado] 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 […] “It could mean a payment to K of 10,000 euros on a recurring basis.” According to 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 “different amounts” linked ” to different people or concepts.” “It should be noted that the second concept of the same 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”, reference is made to “METALLIC” (capitalized 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 of the investigated sent to each other by cell phone. In one of those images, for example, “two wads of cash bills are observed, one of them inside a transparent plastic bag and another gummed with bills of different values,” the researchers from the armed institute add.
The National Court maintains an open summary on the Koldo case for alleged crimes of money laundering, criminal organization, bribery and influence peddling.
Allusion to Illa
The Civil Guard report includes other messages intercepted from members of the plot, about which the agents do not draw any incriminating conclusions in the document. Among others, in a communication from August 2020, one of the detainees speaks that they had had a meeting with the “chief of staff” and that they are convinced that the minister “will give the ok […]the only thing that can stop him is that he has to give the health ok”, in supposed reference to the team of the then head of Health, Salvador Illa, of whom they would later send a screenshot of the Wikipedia entry about him. They do not specify nothing more, according to the report: they do not say what it would be about. Sources close to Illa deny any irregular action, and point out that the purchase of material has been explained and supervised by the Court of Auditors.
For its part, the report also states that another arrested person, Ignacio Díaz, identified by the alias Nacho flashbackwrites in a group that “needs someone to go do six [test] PCR to the Ministry of Transportation with him, who now explains to them: “Next, he sends you a screenshot of a conversation with Ángel Víctor Torres.” The UCO document does not detail anything more about this.
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