The 'Leire case' court papers point to Sánchez as having knowledge of the PSOE 'sewers' scheme
The Civil Guard's UCO concludes that President Sánchez had knowledge of the activity of the alleged criminal network. The court papers also point to former chief of staff Juanfran Serrano and several lawyers and Socialist leaders.
The UCO links Sánchez to the alleged criminal scheme within the PSOE
According to ABC, the court papers in the so-called 'Leire case' place the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, directly at the centre of knowledge concerning the activities of the alleged network of influence set up around the PSOE. The revelation comes from a report by the Civil Guard's Central Operational Unit (UCO), made public this Wednesday, in which investigators conclude that Sánchez — referred to in intercepted conversations as "the pres" — would have had "knowledge of the activity being carried out" by Leire Díez, the alleged party 'fixer'.
The starting point is a phrase attributed to Díez herself: "The 'number one' says to carry on. That I am doing big things and I must not give up". The UCO interprets that "number one" to be the head of the Executive.
Judge Pedraz and the structure of the scheme
The National Court judge Santiago Pedraz maintains that Leire Díez and former Socialist leader Santos Cerdán would have led an organisation "whose purpose" was "to protect the interests at stake in a series of legal proceedings affecting the PSOE and, directly or indirectly, certain members of the Government or its president".
The UCO describes a dual line of operation. On one hand, the organisation would have offered to persons under investigation "more favourable procedural treatment, financial benefits or jobs in the public administration", all in exchange for compromising information about members of the judiciary, the Public Prosecution Service and the Civil Guard itself. On the other, there would have been "offers of an economic nature" so that witnesses would change their statements in court.
Cerdán placed the party's structure at the service of the scheme
Investigators point out that Cerdán would have "placed the party's own structure at the disposal of the criminal organisation", financing with PSOE funds "the cost of the activity investigated" by Pedraz. Two party employees, Covadonga San Pedro and Celia Rodríguez, appear in the court papers as those in charge of managing "some of the needs that arose".
The UCO also identifies payments arranged "through the issuing of false invoices" and, in some cases, through "intermediary companies". Gaspar Zarrías, former vice-president of the Andalusian Regional Government, would have taken on "matters of a legal character"; his company Zaño Sociedad Consultores would have served to pay Leire Díez 16,000 euros in four instalments. Ana María Fuentes, party manager, would have forged two professional work notes to simulate contractual relationships with lawyers Ismael Oliver and Jacobo Teijelo, and thus channel payments to both solicitors.
The lawyers and businessman Pérez Dolset
Businessman Javier Pérez Dolset appears in the court papers at a "lower rung" to Díez, as an "information source" who would have provided her with contacts and accompanied her to "several key meetings", including one in which an attempt was made to obtain data to compromise the UCO.
Lawyer Jacobo Teijelo, to whom the UCO attributes receipt of "at least 125,000 euros" from the PSOE, figures as a "qualified adviser in legal matters". According to investigators, he would have facilitated meetings aimed at "obtaining information to discredit or bring down the hydrocarbon cases" and gathering compromising data about UCO officers, "with the purpose of damaging and discrediting that unit".
Regarding lawyer Ismael Oliver, the UCO states that he "would have been appointed by the organisation to assume the defence of Koldo García", instrumentalising that defence to "direct complaints against the Central Operational Unit which were subsequently disseminated in the media". Through two law offices linked to Oliver, agents claim there would have been arranged "an operation to channel funds to Leire coming from the PSOE, through the simulation of a business relationship with the political party and the issuing of false invoices".
Sánchez's former chief of staff, also in the spotlight
As for Juanfran Serrano, who was chief of staff to Pedro Sánchez, the UCO concludes that he "was a participant and aware of the development of the activity deployed, receiving enquiries from Leire" throughout the time the network allegedly operated.
The court papers thus record a chain of alleged responsibilities which, according to the Civil Guard, connects the PSOE's organisational and financial apparatus to the activity investigated by the National Court, with the President of the Government as the figure identified at the top of that structure according to the intercepted conversations of those under investigation.
Source: ABC