After refusing to testify before the judge, businessman Víctor de Aldama left the National Court at a brisk pace last Thursday, February 22, trying to hide his face from the television cameras. With his head bowed and covered by the hood of a black sweatshirt, the president of the Zamora Football Club had been released just a few minutes ago, after being arrested for his alleged involvement in the Koldo case, the alleged corruption network concocted to obtain public contracts for the supply of masks in the worst of the pandemic in exchange for the payment of allegedly illegal commissions. That day, almost all the focus was on Koldo García, the former advisor of former Minister José Luis Ábalos, identified as the person who “facilitated” access to the Administration to achieve the awards. However, as details of the summary have emerged, the figure of De Aldama has emerged as one of the key pieces.
In fact, Judge Ismael Moreno has issued the harshest precautionary measures against De Aldama and García. Although both have been released, they are ordered to appear in court every 15 days, they are prohibited from leaving the national territory and their passports are taken away. According to several resolutions of the investigating judge and the complaint of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, these are part of the evidence that accumulates against the president of Zamora CF, whose address is established in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid):
The contract track. According to several sources, De Aldama had been moving around the Ministry of Transportation for some time. There he “enjoyed a certain prevalence,” according to the judge. And, when the coronavirus health crisis broke out, he learned that said department needed medical supplies, as he himself later admitted to the National Fraud Investigation Office (ONIF, dependent on the Ministry of Finance), according to the summary. However, Anticorruption highlights that he “did not have the necessary human and material resources, nor sufficient financing, to be able to undertake” the supply of masks and other products. For this reason, he “contacts” Juan Carlos Cueto, “leader” of the Grupo Cueto business conglomerate, whom he already knows before and whom investigators also place at the top of the plot – the latter denied the accusations before the judge this Wednesday. —.
The investigations indicate that both then undertook a “joint project.” Supposedly, they agreed to use the company Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a las Empresas SL, controlled in the shadows by Cueto, as a cover to sign the Administration contracts. “Soluciones de Gestión would have been used as an instrumental company,” says Anticorrupción. With these operations, Judge Moreno calculates that Cueto obtained a profit of 9.6 million euros; and De Aldama, 5.5 million. For its part, Koldo García’s “increase in assets” is estimated at 1.5 million.
Previous business. “The collaboration between Víctor de Aldama and the Cueto Group is not punctual, they have had common projects in the past,” says the public ministry, which points to the Businesscity company. Furthermore, the Prosecutor’s Office points out that, after the suspicious awards, they continued doing business: “Through two different investments: Telefarmacia App and a blackboard business, using the companies Brama Capital, Pizarras Santa Bárbara and Comercializadora Pizarras Santa Bárbara ( corporate purpose: extraction of ornamental and construction stone). “Brama and Pizarras are acquired by Soluciones de Gestión and, subsequently, De Aldama acquires part of their ownership. Part of the public funds obtained from the suspicious awards were invested in the start-up of the “blackboard business,” Anti-Corruption continues.
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The magistrate adds: “Cueto and Aldama continue to have [actualmente] common issues, some of them relevant to the facts investigated. In this way, on January 26, 2024, Aldama would have delivered to Cueto some object that Aldama refers to in an agreed language as “chorizos.”
The link with Koldo. “Management Solutions’ contact with Koldo García occurs through Víctor de Aldama. “Both know each other personally having met in a work context since December 2018,” explains the prosecutor. Both had met in Mexico, on the occasion of an official visit by Minister Ábalos to the region. Aldama presented himself as honorary consul. “[El presidente del Zamora] and Koldo García, advisor to the head of the ministry at that time, maintained a direct and personal relationship,” the judge also emphasizes. Monitoring by the Civil Guard also made it possible to discover that De Aldama, Cueto and García “had several meetings in hospitality establishments” in Madrid. Specifically, in a seafood restaurant.
The offer and contacts. Judge Moreno emphasizes that it was De Aldama who also “presented the offer of Management Solutions to the Ministry of Transport”, where the president of Zamora CF had a “special pass”. The summary indicates that, in addition to Koldo, he also contacted other “authorities.” “Aldama’s interlocutor with State Ports, [una de las empresas que les concedió contratos]”, was Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, who participated in the awarding of the contract with file number E/019/20 as Secretary General of State Ports,” recalls the instructor.
Diversion of money to Luxembourg. Judge Moreno explains that part of the profit obtained “was transferred to the Aldama companies, MTM 180 Capital SL and Deluxe Fortune SL, directly from the bank accounts of Management Solutions.” “Likewise, the company MTM 180 Capital, with the funds transferred by Soluciones de Gestión together with the constitution of a loan in the amount of one million euros, made a transfer in the amount of 1.6 million that would have been destined to the company. “Stronghold Credit SL, owned by Stronghold Partners SL, which in turn has the Luxembourg company Stronghold Topco SARL as its sole shareholder,” states the Prosecutor’s Office, which believes that all these capital movements were intended to “hide” and “make monitoring difficult.” ” of money.
Mentioned as a “commission agent.” “On several occasions, references have been observed to Aldama’s role as a ‘commission agent’ vis-à-vis the Public Administration within the framework of the investigated contracts,” the judge of the National Court also states. The judge bases this statement on several intercepted telephone conversations, such as one that Cueto has with a De Aldama employee following a summons that the president of Zamora has received from the Treasury: “In the aforementioned call, Cueto states that the people Those who appear must do so with legal assistance, since ‘if someone goes there and starts going off and cutting, they have a problem.’ This fear could be linked to Aldama being considered a ‘commission agent’ in the eyes of the Tax Agency, a deduction drawn from the intercepted telephone conversations of Íñigo Rotaeche, [apoderado de Soluciones de Gestión] and Cueto, who on several occasions have linked him to the ministry in charge of the investigated contracts.”
Money deliveries. “The observation of telephone interventions and operational activity [de la Guardia Civil] “has revealed the possible delivery of money from Aldama to Koldo García through Cueto,” the magistrate adds.
The money trail. The investigators, who also accuse those involved of laundering operations, have followed the money trail. Among other operations, the judge states that they have detected how Soluciones de Gestión transferred 110,036 euros to Deluxe Fortune, headed by De Aldama, who in turn transferred these funds to the company Depósito Judicial de Murcia SL: “Whose owner, Rogelio Pujalte, according to The telephone intervention has a direct link with Koldo García.”
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