Aldama denies to judge that Armengol or her government received commissions
The commission agent Víctor de Aldama told judge Moreno that neither the president of Congress nor any member of the Balearic executive received money for healthcare contracts.
Aldama exonerates Armengol and Balearic government before the National Court
The commission agent Víctor de Aldama denied on Thursday before National Court judge Ismael Moreno that Francina Armengol, current president of the Congress of Deputies, or any member of her Balearic government had requested or received commissions for the contract awarded to his company, Soluciones de Gestión, for the purchase of healthcare material during the pandemic. According to La Vanguardia, this is what Aldama stated in his declaration as an investigated party before the instructing judge.
According to sources present at the interrogation, Aldama indicated that the contact with Armengol was Koldo García, adviser to then Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos. The businessman emphasised the difference between Armengol's situation and that of the current Minister of Territorial Policy, Víctor Ángel Torres: "Whilst I have been insisting that Torres asked for money and bribes, I have no evidence that anyone in the Balearic administration asked for money," he said.
Two separate proceedings in the National Court
The National Court is investigating in separate proceedings the contracts awarded to Soluciones de Gestión by the Balearic Government and by the Canary Islands Government, when Torres presided over the latter. Aldama, García and Ábalos are also awaiting the sentence that the Supreme Court must issue regarding the commissions that the businessman paid to the former minister and his adviser.
In his declaration on Thursday, Aldama reiterated that he paid 10,000 euros monthly to Koldo García in exchange for him facilitating contracts and opening doors in other administrations. Over the past year, the businessman has acknowledged the payment of these amounts to García, Ábalos and other high-ranking officials.
The UCO report
Aldama's declaration came following the delivery to the court of a report by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, in which investigators stated that the healthcare material contracts "would constitute part of the reason for being of the monthly payment of 10,000 euros in cash that Víctor de Aldama had been paying to Koldo".
According to the police report, this economic relationship allowed the businessman "to have access" to the former minister. The UCO also noted that the payments continued for eight months after Ábalos and García ceased their positions at the Transport Ministry in July 2021, which in the investigators' view indicates that the pattern of payments did not respond to "specific actions" but to the "assurance of his capacity for influence" in order to obtain "economic profit".
Source: La Vanguardia