The judge files the investigation against Sánchez Galán in the 'Villarejo case' due to prescription of crimes

Ignacio Sánchez Galán, president of Iberdrola, in Barcelona on April 20. David Zorrakino (Getty)

The judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón has issued this Thursday an order by which he files the

for the president of Iberdrola, José Ignacio Sánchez Galán, who had been indicted since June 2021 for the crimes of bribery, against privacy and false documentation for his alleged involvement in the espionage work that the commissioner had done for the electricity company.

The magistrate, who had rejected the dismissal that Sánchez Galán had requested on four previous occasions, highlights in his order that he takes the measure required by a decision of June 3 of the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court that filed the case against another executive investigated for the same crimes, considering that these had prescribed as more than 10 years had passed since they were committed.

“The forcefulness of this resolution leaves no room for action for this instructor”, highlights García-Castellón.

As detailed by the magistrate in his order, the president of Iberdrola ―who in his statement as an investigator, on January 18, distanced himself from the contracts with the former police officer and presented himself as a victim of the plot― was charged in June of the year passed at the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for its alleged relationship with the work that Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo did between 2004 and 2009 for the electricity company.

At the beginning of that period, Sánchez Galán was vice president and CEO of the company, to whose presidency he was promoted in 2006. Since 2009, the investigation has found no evidence that the commissioner worked for Iberdrola.

It was precisely this detail that the National High Court used on June 3 to file the case against Rafael Orbegozo, director of Iberdrola,

More information

The president of Iberdrola distances himself from the orders to Villarejo: "I neither ordered nor authorized anything"

Now, García-Castellón refers to this resolution and recalls that Sánchez Galán's alleged participation in the events under investigation also lasted until 2009 and that he was not charged until June 23, 2021. "We must

Verify that more than 10 years have elapsed between the date on which the last alleged act was committed and the date of his summons as an investigator, ”says the magistrate.

For all these reasons, the judge concludes that "the crimes charged to José Ignacio Sánchez Galán would be prescribed, so there would be no other option than to declare the presence of this circumstance that extinguishes responsibility, and thereby order a free dismissal," he concludes. The magistrate.

However, the magistrate highlights the evidence collected during the investigation into the supposedly irregular work that Villarejo did for Iberdrola: the

projects (for him to infiltrate the neighborhood movement that opposed a combined cycle power plant in the Cadiz town of Arcos de la Frontera),

(the alleged espionage of the then president of Endesa, Manuel Pizarro),

(directed against two directors of Iberdrola itself) and

(to search for compromising data from the president of ACS, Florentino Pérez).

García Castellón emphasizes that these orders were reflected "in numerous reports and procedures" between 2004 and 2006 that "sometimes included access to traffic of telephone calls made and received by the persons under investigation," according to the documentation. Villarejo intervened at his home when he was arrested in November 2017. The judge also highlights the alleged "confidential nature" that these documents had even within the electricity company "as seems to be inferred from the fact that the bills" for these services were not issued by the commissioner's companies but by a different company.

Sánchez Galán's accusation had not only caused an impact on Iberdrola's image, but had also put key company projects on hold, such as its star operation in the United States, the purchase of PNM Resources.

This was halted late last year by a New Mexico regulator citing the

Specifically, the New Mexico Public Services Commission rejected the operation seven months ago, valued at more than 7,000 million euros and key to Iberdrola's growth in the North American country, stating that the Spanish electricity company was not "the right partner" .

Two other directors, outside the cause

In the same order and with the same argument, the judge of the National High Court Manuel García-Castellón has also agreed to dismiss two other Iberdrola directors who were listed as being investigated, José Luis San Pedro Guerenabarrena and Juan Carlos Rebollo.

However, in their case, the file is limited to the crime of bribery.

The second crime of which they were accused, the alleged coercion of a former employee who denounced the use of false invoices to hide payments to Villarejo, orders him to be sent to a court in Bilbao, considering that the National Court is not competent to investigate it.