Luis Bárcenas, then treasurer of the PP and senator, leaves his home on July 21, 2009, in full investigation of the 'Gürtel case'.Samuel Sánchez
Almost a decade after the start of the investigation into the donations made by businessmen to the PP's box b, supposedly in exchange for public awards (a derivative of
the Gürtel case
), Judge Santiago Pedraz shelved him last week.
The magistrate of the National Court concluded that there is no "incriminating data" that allows us to continue with these investigations, the last ones that were still alive on this plot and that kept under suspicion 23 contracts for almost 600 million euros awarded by the governments of José Maria Aznar (PP).
The instructor has endorsed part of the arguments of the Prosecutor's Office and the builder Alfonso García Pozuelo-Asins, whose initial confession had paradoxically led to the reopening of this case in 2017.
But finally, and in the absence of evidence, the Prosecutor's Office and the businessman have asked Judge Pedraz for the dismissal, in separate writings to which EL PAÍS has had access.
And the judge has agreed.
The PSOE, appearing as popular accusation,
31 unsuccessful declarations.
After starting this investigation in 2013, which investigates the relationship between the concession of public works and the donations reflected in the parallel accounting kept by the popular ex-treasurer Luis Bárcenas (the famous
Bárcenas papers
), Judge José de la Mata decided in 2015 to close the case due to the impossibility of proving that the delivery of the money to the PP box b by the businessmen was linked to public contracts.
But everything changed in 2017: the same investigating judge agreed to reopen the case for alleged bribery after García Pozuelo-Asins, president of Constructora Hispánica, admitted that he had paid the Gürtel plot in exchange for obtaining contracts.
His confession came in the Epoch I trial, which ended with the first conviction of the PP for benefiting from the corrupt network led by Francisco Correa.
Since then, according to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office in its file request sent to Pedraz (who replaced De la Mata), 22 witnesses have been questioned who "have not provided information on specific elements of connection" between the donations of
the Bárcenas
and the awards.
Among the people who were called to testify, without success, are Javier López Madrid, the former OHL director prosecuted in the
Lezo case
for participating in the irregular concession of the train works to Navalcarnero (Madrid) for 360 million euros ;
Guillermo Ortega and Arturo González Panero, former mayors of the PP of Majadahonda and Boadilla del Monte, respectively, already imprisoned by
Gürtel;
Ricardo Costa, former
number two
the former Valencian president Francisco Camps, also convicted for his participation in the plot;
and Álvaro Pérez Alonso,
El Bigotes
,
Correa's
right-hand man .
More information
The National Court archives the investigation into bribery in the Aznar governments
According to the public ministry, only Luis Vicente Moro, who worked at Constructora Hispánica, put on the table the "existence of rumors in the company about generating money through some gas stations, to which he added that it seemed that this money was for special company expenses, but the specific destination did not know.
"These rumors have not been verified or confirmed by other testimonies given in the case," says Anticorrupción, which stresses that the nine defendants questioned did not shed any light on the facts either: among them, García-Pozuelo himself - who refused to testify before De la Mata despite his previous confession in Season I—, Correa and Bárcenas.
Treasury reports: "They do not shed light."
The Prosecutor's Office stresses that more than a dozen Treasury reports have been incorporated, which mostly rule out irregularities.
The public ministry pays special attention to the analysis that the IGAE (General Intervention of the State Administration), dependent on said ministry, made several suspected contracts that affected the construction company Degrémont.
Rafael Palencia, former president of said company, who died in October 2021, acknowledged payments to the PP in a recording intervened within the framework of Operation Lezo —another corruption investigation focused on former Madrid president Ignacio González—;
and in the parallel accounting of Bárcenas there appear at least three deliveries of money (more than 80,000 euros) in the name of Palencia between 2000 and 2008. But, according to Anticorruption,
the Bárcenas papers
.
The businessman Rafael Palencia, who died in 2021, in a file image.
In addition, the public ministry relies on a report from the IGAE on November 4 that also ruled out irregularities in the awards suspected by the Government of José María Aznar to Constructora Hispánica.
The defense of García Pozuelo-Asins, who requested the file on November 29, delves into this idea precisely: “This report does not allow us to determine the commission, not even indiciary, of alleged crimes of bribery, or of any other kind [. ..] In other words, they do not shed any light on any element that could make the alleged donations of [my client] to the PP coincide with the awards to Constructora Hispánica.
There is no evidence whatsoever, such as: if a gift was requested or offered, who requested it or to whom it was paid, what was the amount, in what adjudication procedure, etc."
"In no contracting file does administrative irregularity signify", the builder's lawyer continues in his letter: "What's more, in each and every one of the works awarded to Constructora Hispánica it can be seen, according to the IGAE report, that both the members of the respective contracting committees (public officials of the ministry) as well as those technicians who held the function of facultative management or technical assistance, are always different, the same person not holding the same position in any of the works analyzed by the report the IGAE”.
This last argument is recovered by Judge Pedraz for his filing order.
Alfonso García Pozuelo-Asins, together with his lawyer, upon arrival at the National Court in 2017.Javier Lizon (EFE)
“The famous 3%” is not detected.
In its reports, the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the Police did conclude that there is "an objective, subjective and temporal correlation" between the award of works and alleged payments reflected in
the Bárcenas papers
.
In addition, in another 2021 analysis, the UDEF certified millionaire cost overruns in the works of the Aznar era and "violations" of the "general principles of contracting", against the subsequent criteria of the Treasury.
The defense of García Pozuelo-Asins takes advantage of his November brief to charge against this police unit, to which he attributes the intention of opening a "sort of general cause" against Constructora Hispánica.
The builder's lawyer adds: "There is no element that allows us to infer, either indicatively, that such [criminal] acts have occurred [...] There is no note, email, document, recorded conversation, statement testimony, etc."
-This last sentence will be reproduced by Pedraz when dismissing-.
In addition, the defense criticizes the method used by the UDEF;
and compares the alleged donations reflected in
the Bárcenas papers
(both from García Pozuelo and from his partners) with the total number of awards under suspicion, to conclude that they represent a minimum percentage, always less than 0.6%.
“It is obvious that we will always obtain a percentage if we divide the awarded amount with the supposedly donated amount, because that is how mathematics is, what we will not obtain are logical amounts in this type of operation.
To put it another way, the famous 3%”.
For almost 20 years, the PP entered into its box some eight million euros, a good part of them coming from businessmen who received numerous multimillion-dollar public contracts from different administrations, many governed by the PP.
But the National Court, after nine years of investigation, has not found the evidence linking the awarded contracts and the donations that the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas registered in his secret accounting.
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