The judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno has initiated a case to investigate the cash payments of the PSOE to former minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor Koldo García. The magistrate has received the letter from the Supreme Court in which it urged him to investigate the cash that the politician and his assistant received and has opened a separate piece to clarify the origin of the money.
The high court entrusted Moreno, who was initially investigating the ‘Koldo case’, to initiate this case following the statements of the former PSOE manager Mariano Moreno and the party employee Celia Rodríguez who defended that everything was done through legal channels.
The Supreme Court judge took this step after taking a statement fifteen days ago from the former manager and a Ferraz worker, who confirmed the version that the party has been giving, which rejects the existence of a box and argues that the money that the former minister and his former advisor received in cash corresponded to settlements of expenses such as meals or travel. Puente summoned them after a report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard alluded to “a lack of agreement” between the documentation sent by the PSOE to the Supreme Court regarding the settlements made to Ábalos and conversations between García and his ex-wife about alleged cash receipts “through envelopes at the PSOE headquarters” on Ferraz Street.
Both the former manager, Mariano Moreno, and the worker, Celia Rodríguez, assured the judge that the PSOE does not have one and confirmed the version of the party, which has provided the judge with documentation to certify that the alleged imbalance that the UCO warns is due to the fact that the socialists only delivered to the court the individually settled expenses of the two former Organization secretaries investigated (Ábalos and Santos Cerdán) and the former advisor to the minister; But these three were also able to receive settlements of expenses for their teams from the Organization Secretariat, which were noted as such in the party’s accounting, not individually.
The instructor, however, considers that the statements of Moreno and Rodríguez have not cleared up all doubts about “who the person was and what the procedure for cash compensation for invoices presented”; or why it was not proven that the person claiming reimbursement of expenses was, “in accordance with the tickets or invoices provided”, who had made them.
[Noticia de última hora. Habrá actualización en breve]
