The former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, a historic figure of the PP, appears this Thursday as a witness in the trial of the "Lezo case" against her successor in the regional Presidency, Ignacio González. Alleged irregularities in the awarding of two public contracts of the Canal de Isabel II related to a golf course of this public entity are being analyzed.
This judicial procedure was at the origin of Aguirre's resignation in 2017 as spokesperson and councilor in the Madrid City Council, after González's arrest, who had been her "number two" during her time at the head of the Madrid government between 2003 and 2012.
In this part of the "Lezo case," in addition to González, the then managing director of the Canal de Isabel II between 2003 and 2009, Ildefonso de Miguel, and the partners of the company TCT, awarded the investigated contracts: José Antonio Clemente, Pablo Manuel González, and Juan José Caballero, the latter two being brother and brother-in-law of the former regional president, sit in the dock.
In the inaugural session of the trial, held last Tuesday and dedicated to preliminary issues, Ignacio González and the rest of the accused rejected the charges made against them.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office demands six years in prison for all the accused as presumed authors of bribery offenses and as necessary collaborators, as well as a fine of 550,000 euros.
Awards from the Canal de Isabel II and benefit to relatives
The events took place in 2002, when the Canal de Isabel II, dependent on the Community of Madrid, signed an urban planning agreement with the Madrid City Council to open several facilities of the organization for public use. To this end, a competition was called to execute the cover of the third reservoir of the Canal, according to the provisional conclusions document of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
In June 2004, the management of the Canal, led by Ildefonso de Miguel and Ignacio González, then regional vice president, "in order to benefit relatives of the latter, promoted and facilitated the processing of a modification of the previous competition, despite the fact that, given the substantial changes that were to be introduced, a new bidding should have been called," according to Anti-Corruption.
"Guided by this purpose, they agreed with Dragados that the Canal de Isabel II would directly award this company the modified contract, imposing the condition that it subcontract for certain works to the company Tecnoconcret Proyectos de Ingeniería," known as TCT, whose partners were Clemente, the brother and brother-in-law of González.
The relatives of the former president of Madrid concealed their participation through intermediaries to disguise their ties with the then regional leader, according to the version of the Prosecutor's Office.
The approval and direct award to Dragados of that modification was agreed upon in the Board of Directors of the Canal de Isabel II on July 19, 2006, after the intervention of Ignacio González and Ildefonso de Miguel.
Thus, "the joint action of the accused allowed TCT, a company without the technical capacity to carry out any of the assigned works, to unnecessarily interpose itself and unduly benefit from both awards, obtaining a profit of at least 504,780 euros financed with public funds allocated to such contracts," states the Prosecutor's Office.
Million-dollar contracts and chain subcontracting
The Public Prosecutor details that on June 15, 2006, before the formal award of the modification, Dragados subcontracted TCT for certain works claiming that its proposal had been the most advantageous.
According to the prosecutor's written statement, the partners of TCT secretly agreed with those responsible at Dragados to "increase the amount to be charged by 47%." On that June 15, 2006, a contract was signed for 160,204.79 euros for test hole number 4 of the golf course.
Subsequently, the object of the contract was expanded through four annexes dated August 10, November 15 and 24, 2006, and February 14, 2007, with amounts of 2,292,232.82, 298,830.24, 286,270.58, and 30,326.40 euros, respectively. The total volume of works subcontracted by Dragados to TCT thus amounted to 3,067,864.83 euros.
The Prosecutor's Office recalls that TCT was established in May 2003 with the activity of engineering works and that it was not until 2008 that it incorporated the execution of sports projects. "However, the company lacked any capacity to carry out the execution of the works included in the modification," points out the Public Prosecutor.
Given the impossibility of directly executing those jobs, the accused resorted to new subcontractors with Onlygolf Planning and Design and Fieldturf España, with whom they agreed on a commission of 8% for their role as intermediaries.
Billing, profits, and distribution under pseudonyms
According to Anticorruption, Fieldturf issued three invoices to TCT for 270,204 euros and Onlygolf processed eleven invoices for a total of 2,605,805 euros. At the same time, TCT issued thirteen invoices to Dragados for 3,257,039 euros, "successive and correlating" to the fourteen invoices issued by Onlygolf and Fieldturf against TCT for 2,876,010.16 euros, thus achieving a margin of 381,029 euros "for their unnecessary and imposed intermediation."
The Prosecutor's Office maintains that between November 2006 and March 2008, in a context prior to the economic crisis, the accused distributed part of those profits "according to a perfectly documented plan." Ignacio González's brother, identified by the initials "PG," would have received 101,348 euros through 20 cash deliveries.
The brother-in-law of the former president, under the initials "JJC," would have received 94,425 euros in eleven payments, while José Antonio Clemente, identified as "JCM," would have corresponded to 71,199 euros. According to Anticorruption, these payments would have been structured with invoices issued by shell companies.
Sports concession and new profits for TCT
In parallel, in 2006 the Canal awarded the contract for the management and operation of the sports facilities of the third deposit to a UTE made up of TCT, Soto Once, and Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras.
After that award, the UTE created the company Green Canal Golf, which signed the concession in 2007 and, shortly after, subcontracted with TCT for the maintenance of the grass for five years for 9,875 euros per month.
That same day, TCT, "lacking the capacity to execute that work," subcontracted it in turn with Onlygolf, reducing the monthly fee to 7,941 euros and ensuring, solely for its role as an intermediary, an approximate profit of 124,000 euros, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office.