The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has asked the judge of the National Court (Audiencia Nacional) who is handling the 'Koldo case' to put one step away from the dock the former president of Adif Isabel Pardo de Vera and Jéssica Rodríguez, the ex-partner of the former minister José Luis Ábalos, while it leans toward filing the proceedings with respect to several former officials of the Ministry of Transport who appear as investigated.
In a brief to which Europa Press has had access, the prosecutor requests that the processing be continued with a view to a possible trial also against the former adviser of Ábalos who gives the name to the case, Koldo García, and against the businessman Víctor de Aldama, both already convicted by the Supreme Court to prison sentences for the 'masks case'.
Anti-Corruption raises the same route for other defendants such as the commander of the Guardia Civil Rubén Villalba; Koldo's brother, Joseba García; the ex-partner of the former ministerial adviser, Patricia Uriz; the businessmen Ignacio Díaz, Javier Serrano, César Moreno, Juan Carlos Cueto and Íñigo Rotaeche, as well as for the former Adif executive Ignacio Zaldívar.
In that list it also includes the company Soluciones de Gestión, linked to Aldama and beneficiary during the pandemic of various supply contracts for face masks awarded from the Ministry of Transport —through Puertos del Estado and Adif— and by the regional governments of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands that are under judicial scrutiny.
The Public Ministry directs its accusation at the alleged irregularities in the purchase of medical material and in the contracting of Ábalos's former girlfriend in the public companies Ineco and Tragsatec, and attributes in this framework possible crimes of criminal organization, bribery, trafficking in influence, money laundering and against the Public Treasury (Hacienda Pública).
At the same time, the prosecutor requests the dismissal of the proceedings that are being followed against former Adif officials and against people from the circle of other accused parties, such as Aldama and Koldo.
And it is that the Prosecutor's Office argues that, on the one hand, "certain facts and conduct are not prosecutable" and, on the other hand, "certain investigated people are not charged with any crime".
"In the first group, are the facts relating to the negotiation and awarding of the face mask supply contracts to Soluciones de Gestión, and possible money laundering associated with the proceeds obtained from these operations," the Public Ministry specifies.
In the second block, he places the former senior position at Adif Michaux Miranda, to whom Piedad Losada, former secretary of Aldama, and Alberto Escolano, who signed the lease contract for the apartment in central Madrid for the former couple of Ábalos, among other people involved.
Anti-Corruption also requests the case be filed for Jesús Manuel Gómez, undersecretary of Transport in the Ábalos period; for Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, former secretary general of Ports of the State; for Daniel Sierra, who served as the attorney-in-fact of Soluciones de Gestión; for José Luis Rodríguez, related to Juan Carlos Cueto; for Israel Pilar Ortiz, linked to Koldo and Aldama; for Rogelio Pujalte, who received a transfer from Soluciones de Gestión; for Patricia Ramos, former partner of Aldama; for María Auxiliadora Luque, related to the former adviser, and for Andoni García, another of Koldo’s brothers.
It should be recalled that the Supreme Court already partially tried the 'masks case' due to Ábalos’s status as an aforado deputy when he was prosecuted. The Chamber sentenced the former minister to 24 years in prison, imposed 19 years on Koldo and set four years for Aldama, to whom it avoided sending to prison for his collaboration with the justice system during the investigation.