The WhatsApp audios of the commission agent Luceño: “If I do that, you will be back with the 'scam'

The nerves broke out on April 8, 2020. After noon, Elena Collado, a senior official of the Madrid City Council and head of purchases during the worst of the pandemic, sent a battery of

to Alberto Luceño, one of the commission agents who, together to his partner Luis Medina, they would end up pocketing almost six million euros for the sale of medical supplies to the Consistory.

"Please, call me [...] We have been scammed for sure," writes Collado, who had just discovered that the same gloves that they bought through these two businessmen for almost two dollars, were sold in the supermarket for only eight cents euro

Faced with the setback that such a revelation entails, as can be deduced from several audios and WhatsApp messages incorporated into the summary and to which EL PAÍS had access, Luceño deploys his efforts to calm his interlocutor, so that he does not think again that they are scamming the Management.

Thus, after ensuring that he has made arrangements with the supplier (the Leno company) to lower the initial price of two dollars, he promises that the company will return the difference: 4,025 million dollars [3.6 million euros at the current exchange rate] for the entire operation.

But really, according to the Prosecutor's Office, Leno never reduced the amount, but those 4 million were the commission of the two Spanish businessmen, which they resigned.

A maneuver that, according to what is clear from their conversations, Collado was unaware of, whose obsession becomes recovering that amount.

—What time are they going to make the transfer [return]?

—asks the senior official at 5:31 p.m. on that same April 8, inaugurating 16 frenetic hours, where Luceño insists that everything is underway.

—Elena, I don't know the time of the transfer.

That is to say, they have already made the letter, they are going to send the invoice and the man will get up, and when he gets up he will go to the bank and send me the transfer —replies the commission agent in an audio, who takes the opportunity to press him continuously with another operation —.

It is very important that you give me an outlet for the tests because we can no longer wait.[...] We have to get the merchandise out now, because the factory can no longer stand it.

Even so, Collado remains uneasy.

“I stay up tonight waiting for the transfer.

I stare at the screen,” she tells Luceño.

He replies: “I'll go to bed.

Now everything is ready".

“Any news, at any time, will be a tremendous relief,” she answers immediately, returning to the fray at seven in the morning on April 9: “Good morning.

Could you take an interest with the Leno people about our transfer?”

Luceño already changes his tone and replies that the City Council has not sent the necessary documentation.

He requires a letter with the stamp and signature of someone from the local Administration so that the bank does not cause problems due to "a money laundering issue", to which Collado replies that he cannot process it so quickly.

Let them make the transfer and then send it to you.

But the commission agent launches with reproaches in another audio: “Elena, I think you don't understand the system.

You, to make a transfer, take eight days and go through 25,000 procedures.

And these people can do it in a day, with a single administration.

But they need a document... Not a fudge.

Because if not, if I do that, you'll be back with [that of] the "scam" of balls and the whole story.

They need a document with the signature of a man who is responsible.

They tell me to sign it and I tell them that I'm going to sign it.

would you sign it?

[...] he is nonsense.

You can run a lot, but things have to be done well [...].

Nothing happens, it will try like this.

But it's a bummer.

People work there, and here they sleep and rest because it's a party.

If you want to collect quickly, then people will have to wake up.

If not,

it will be done as it can.

But the transfer cannot be made because they think it is money laundering.”

They're not on vacation.

No one is," Collado replies.

Finally, Collado sends him the letter signed by the manager of the Funeral Services company.

At 9:23 a.m. on April 9, Luceño considers the return finalized: "It's done," he notifies his contact.

The relationship between both

Luceño and Collado came to weave a close relationship.

In another WhatsApp audio, where the commission agent tells the senior official that he has solved several problems, he blurts out: "Now you do owe me... a medal would do me good... a civil medal."

Luceño and Medina are charged by the judge, but investigators have ruled out Collado's involvement.

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