The manager of the PSOE, Ana María Fuentes, has appeared before the judge of the National Court as an investigated party and has assured that it was the former secretary of Organization of the party, Santos Cerdán, who gave the order to carry out the commissions and make the payments linked to the alleged plot of the 'Leire Díez case'.
Fuentes has denied this Wednesday before the investigating magistrate, Santiago Pedraz, having issued supposedly false invoices, one directed to the law firm related to Ismael Oliver, former lawyer of the former ministerial advisor Koldo García, and another in the name of Jacobo Teijelo, lawyer of Cerdán who is also charged.
According to legal sources consulted by Europa Press, the socialist leader has explained that her role was limited to the economic management of the party and that she did not review the commissions, which she has placed in the realm of legal advisory services and that would have been ordered by Cerdán.
After her statement, Ismael Oliver has also testified as an investigated party, in a case in which a supposed network aimed at trying to neutralize judicial proceedings affecting the Government and the PSOE is being analyzed, which would have been led by Cerdán and coordinated by the former socialist member Leire Díez.
The role of Koldo García's lawyer
Oliver has recounted that Díez contacted him to analyze the appearances in the parliamentary investigation commission regarding the so-called 'Operation Cataluña' and has framed that work in legal advisory tasks for the party given the high number of cases affecting the PSOE, according to the same sources.
In addition, he has indicated that the former member —with whom he held several meetings— suggested to him that it would be the PSOE who would assume the cost of Koldo García's defense, although he has maintained that he never received payment for that work.
It is recorded in the proceedings that the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard suspects that the PSOE would have used companies linked to Oliver and the former Andalusian leader Gaspar Zarrías to pay 43,225 euros to Díez, interposing several companies "to send funds to Leire originating from the party," according to a report accessed by this agency. The investigators detail that Díez would have received in a bank account "at least five payments" associated with the alleged plot.
Of those five payments, four would have been transfers of 4,000 euros each, totaling 16,000 between June and September 2024, coming from the company Zaño Sociedad Consultora, linked to Zarrías. The last payment, of 27,225 euros, would have come from the company Oliver Gruppe, related to the lawyer.
Judge Pedraz, who took over the entire case after the previous instructor, Arturo Zamarriego, sent his part of the investigation, pointed out in an order an indicatory responsibility of the manager of the PSOE, at least as a possible accomplice and, in any case, as a presumed author of a crime of falsification in a commercial document for the issuance of invoices considered false.
Invoices and engagement notes under suspicion
In a report, the UCO maintains that Fuentes, as federal managing director of the party, "would have been the person in charge, with the mediation of Díez and under the directives of Cerdán, of falsifying two professional engagement notes": one with the law firm linked to Oliver and another with Jacobo Teijelo, a lawyer of Cerdán also charged.
"Both professional engagement notes would have been signed merely instrumentally, with the purpose of simulating a professional relationship between the parties and serving as a means for the political formation to materialize payments destined for both lawyers," detailed the UCO in that document.
Regarding Oliver, the UCO reiterates that the PSOE would have resorted to companies in his name and that of Zarrías to pay 43,225 euros to Díez, using various companies "to send funds to Leire originating from the party." The agents emphasize that the former member would have received in an account "at least five payments" connected with the alleged network.
Of those five movements, four would be salaries of 4,000 euros, totaling 16,000 between June and September 2024, issued by Zarrías's consulting firm, Zaño Sociedad Consultora. The fifth deposit, of 27,225 euros, would come from the firm Oliver Gruppe, associated with the lawyer.
The UCO adds that those four salaries paid by Zarrías's consulting firm "would have really been a method for her to receive amounts originating from the PSOE."
In July, Pedraz agreed to open a separate piece to specifically investigate the payments that the PSOE allegedly made to the former member, in which he analyzes "the possible commission of various public crimes related to corruption."
In the same resolution, the magistrate ordered several banking entities to provide information about movements and balances of more than 80 accounts linked to the case, including six from the PSOE, as well as from Oliver, Teijelo and the companies Oliver Gruppe Estudio Jurídico, Oliver & Partners, in addition to Zarrías and his consultancy.