The fraud plot in Cantabria highway contracts diverted "several million euros" to private accounts

A police vehicle transports one of the detainees for the plot of the Cantabria highway service to the courts of Las Salesas (Santander), this Friday.Juan Manuel Serrano Arce (Europa Press)

The alleged plot to collect bribes in the award of public road maintenance and conservation contracts in Cantabria diverted "several million euros" to private accounts, as revealed by the Tax Agency and the National Police this Friday, when he was imprisoned the head of the Autonomous Highway Service of the Government of Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Díez, two days after the agents found 530,000 euros in cash and a money counting machine at his home.

The investigation, which began at the beginning of 2022, came to light this past Wednesday when searches were made, in addition to at Díez's home, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Works.

The head of the Investigating Court Number 5 of Santander, in charge of the investigation for which eight people were arrested, has ordered the entry into prison without bail and communicated the head of Service and has released his wife and four members with charges of the companies allegedly involved.

All of them are charged with the crimes of bribery, fraud in contracting and money laundering.

In the first months of 2022, officials from the Special Delegation of the Tax Agency in Cantabria learned of the possible participation of a high-ranking official of the regional government in the manipulation of public works contract awards in the region.

Through the issuance of technical reports and his participation in the contracting tables, this person allegedly managed to win a series of companies the contracts.

Investigators from the Tax Agency detected indications of an unjustified increase of "several million euros" in the assets of the official's closest family nucleus between 2013 and 2022.

According to the investigation, Miguel Ángel Díez was involved in the preparation of offers from specific bidders and, in addition, arbitrarily estimated the subjective criteria for evaluating the offers, which implied the expulsion of other potential bidders.

To do this, he modified prices, negotiated the terms of the tenders with concerted companies and made use of privileged information.

The main person investigated in the plot allegedly designed, with the participation of his wife and daughters, a strategy to introduce into the legal money circuit the significant amounts he received in the form of illegal commissions.

In addition, it has been possible to verify that the aforementioned family environment enjoyed various gifts and a vehicle whose rental contract was paid by one of the companies that was later awarded public works contracts, in whose technical reports the person under investigation participated directly.

Records and account lockouts

The investigation led to the arrests, this Wednesday, of all those investigated, while entries and searches were carried out at the home of the main person investigated, the office where he works in the Department of Public Works of the Government of Cantabria, the social addresses of the companies awarded the contracts whose collusion has been revealed throughout the investigation and the searches in the private homes of the administrators of these companies, all of them in Cantabria.

During the search that was carried out at the home of the investigated official, 530,000 euros were detected in a safe hidden in a wall and a machine to count money.

The agents have also seized abundant documentation, both on paper and computerized, which will allow the Police and the Tax Agency to continue advancing in the investigation.

In addition, bank accounts and financial assets amounting to several million euros have been blocked, as well as other assets available to those investigated.

The operation is still open and new actions are not ruled out.

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