The European Prosecutor's Office has closed the case on the alleged embezzlement of European funds in the contract to supply 250,000 masks for 1,512,500 euros from which Tomás Díaz Ayuso, brother of the president of the Community of Madrid, benefited.
European prosecutors have made that decision by concluding that there is insufficient evidence of crime in that adjudication.
“In particular, it has not been proven that the price paid for the masks was disproportionate, given the quality of the material offered and delivered, nor that it had suffered an undue increase derived from the intervention of people outside the company.
Finally, it has been proven that the transportation was paid for by the winning company and not by the Community of Madrid," the European Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
With the decision of the European prosecutors, the two investigations that weighed on the contract for which the brother of Isabel Díaz Ayuso received 234,000 euros are now closed, according to the calculations of the Prosecutor's Office.
Last summer, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office also archived its inquiries, concluding that there was no illegality because neither Ayuso nor the Governing Council that she chairs had intervened in the procedure.
In addition, the Prosecutor's Office maintained that the Madrid president did not take advantage of her position to influence the acceptance of the offer from Priviet Sportive, the company with which her brother collaborated, nor was there an incompatibility to contract with this company due to the intervention in the Tomás Díaz Ayuso operation.
After the closure of the investigations by Anti-Corruption, those initiated in parallel by the European Prosecutor's Office in March last year remained open.
This independent body of the European Union understood that with this award it had been possible to commit a crime of embezzlement of European funds, since the masks were paid for with Feder funds, and claimed to exclusively direct that investigation.
Anti-corruption opposed it and the clash between the two institutions forced the then State Attorney General, Dolores Delgado, to intervene, who chose to break off the case so that European prosecutors could investigate alleged crimes derived from the misuse of EU funds, and Anti-corruption focused on crimes that could directly affect the functioning of the Spanish public administration (such as influence peddling,
The European prosecutors have agreed to close the investigation after taking a statement from the people who intervened in these awards, analyzing the documentation provided by each one and requesting information from various entities such as the Tax Agency, the Madrid Health Service (Sermas) and the Spanish Association Standardization and Certification (AENOR).
In addition, reports from the Civil Guard were collected and an expert was appointed to examine the documentation.
After this investigation, "sufficient evidence" of the commission of a crime has not been found, says the European Prosecutor's Office.
The sale of masks to the Community of Madrid from which the president's brother benefited was the origin of the internal crisis of the PP that led to the departure of Pablo Casado and the convening of a congress in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo became the new president of the party.
Although the complaint that gave rise to the investigation by the Prosecutor's Office was presented by the opposition groups of the Madrid Assembly (Podemos, the PSOE and Más Madrid), it was Casado and his general secretary, Teodoro García Egea, who sowed the first doubts. about the president, who was accused of maintaining "non-exemplary" conduct.
"My job is to guarantee that no community governed by the PP has committed a corrupt practice," said the popular then president,
Anticorruption estimated the commission received by Tomás Díaz Ayuso at 234,203.52 euros: 175,000 from the work carried out for Priviet and 59,203.52 euros from an agreed bonus for obtaining the mask contract with the Community of Madrid.
The Spanish Prosecutor's Office linked this commission with the work carried out by the brother of the president for Priviet, "consisting of adding value to the commercial process of this company through his knowledge of health management and the health market, of suppliers and customers potential as well as the qualities and specifications of the demanded products”.
This contribution occurred in the sale of 250,000 masks to the Community of Madrid, but also in others,