'Koldo Case' | Telephone interventions assist money deliveries: “I'm not going to leave you a penny” | Spain | EUROtoday

The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has investigated the phone interventions intercepted within the plot of the Koldo case, which ended final Tuesday with the arrest of Koldo García, former advisor to former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, who was launched this Thursday after being delivered to justice. The brokers preserve that the alleged members of the corrupt community dealt with important quantities of money and purchased properties due to the cash they allegedly obtained from the gathering of irregular commissions for the awarding of contracts to provide masks in the course of the pandemic. According to investigators, Koldo García even used his household to maneuver the cash and attempt to cover it. In reality, among the many intercepted audios, in accordance with the documentation to which EL PAÍS has had entry, a phrase from Joseba García, Koldo's brother, stands out, the place he assures that Ábalos' former advisor advised him: “I am not going to leave you or a penny, I'm not even going to exchange it for bills in hand.” According to the abstract, this may present that Joseba “would have received cash belonging to Koldo.”

In one other phone dialog, in accordance with the judicial documentation, “it is observed how Joseba, under the instructions of his brother Kodo”, prepares to “enter the amount of 30,000 euros into a bank account in his name, to later transfer said funds to an account” of Patricia U. (wife of Koldo García) or “of the minor daughter of both, according to the most advantageous tax option marked by Patricia.” “In this same conversation, Patricia stated that these income will be used by Koldo to reduce the payments on her mortgages/loans,” the summary highlights.

A judicial resolution by Judge Ismael Moreno, judge of the National Court leading the investigation, details the evidence regarding the allegedly illegal enrichment of Koldo García and the mechanisms, sometimes crude, to launder the bites through his closest relatives, including his minor daughter, her brother and her sister-in-law. According to the investigation by the Civil Guard, it highlights that an “extremely relevant and revealing” fact of the prominent role of Ábalos's former advisor in the plot is “the notable increase in his assets during the last two years” that does not correspond to “the income coming from their official activities.” Thus, the order states that, between 2020 and 2022, he and his family became owners of “movable and immovable property whose value could reach the figure of 1.5 million euros. These acquisitions occur just five months after the public awards to Management Solutions took place. [la empresa epicentro de la trama]”, adds the magistrate.

Specifically, the investigators talk about the acquisition of three properties in Benidorm (Alicante), one of which, bought for 115,000 euros, he put in the name of his youngest daughter without establishing any mortgage, for which he gave the sellers 11,500 euros in cash – without it having been detected in his accounts that he had withdrawn that amount – and four checks loaded into a deposit, also in the daughter's name, into which just two days before the real estate transaction he had entered through nine transfers more than 110,000 euros, using for them one ordered by his brother Joseba and a donation of 90,000 euros made by Koldo García himself and his wife “of which no financial institution transaction might be discovered.” The UCO also detected in this period an “increase in cash income in general”, as well as a decrease in money withdrawals from the accounts of Ábalos' former advisor, which, in the opinion of the agents, denotes the possible existence of another financial source of unknown origin.

In line with the thesis that Ábalos' former advisor used “third parties in order to hide the increases in his assets,” the researchers point out that Joseba García also “titled” his brother's family home in Polop (Alicante): “The fact that Joseba holds title to these assets and had participated in the increase in Koldo's assets has also been reflected in Patricia's conversations with third parties where the intention of Koldo and his wife to restructure their marriage is revealed,” the summary states.

The variety of bites

The investigation that has led to the dismantling of the alleged plot headed by Koldo García, former advisor to former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, is now trying to prove the fate of the million-dollar bribes allegedly received for the awarding of contracts to supply masks in the midst of the pandemic. The agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard have verified an unjustified increase in assets in several of the detainees after locating properties and land supposedly acquired with these funds, as well as numerous sumptuary expenses of some involved that exceed their declared income. . In addition, 120,000 euros in cash were seized from an arrested person, and the agents are trying to determine if he is part of these allegedly illegal commissions. The first estimates from the Civil Guard put the profit obtained by the dismantled network at 9.5 million.

In the case of Koldo García, the investigation has put under suspicion the purchase between 2020 and 2023 of two apartments on the Alicante coast – one of them, a penthouse – and several pieces of land in the same province that appear to have been acquired with his wife, Patricia. U., also detained. After interrogating her wife, the Civil Guard released her pending the judge summoning her to testify at the National Court. All of these real estate properties have been blocked by order of the magistrate. In addition, according to legal sources, Ábalos' former collaborator is also linked to alleged front companies.

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