The judge of the National Court, Ismael Moreno, has decided to charge two high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Transport in the Koldo case, which involves the investigation of the awarding of a series of mask contracts during the pandemic and affects Koldo García, former advisor to the socialist ex-minister José Luis Abalos. In a ruling dated this Monday, the judge has summoned the Undersecretary of Transport, Jesús Manuel Gómez, to testify on September 9, and the Director General of Personnel Management of Adif, Michaux Miranda, on September 11, both as suspects. The day before Miranda, on September 10, the former Secretary General of Ports of the State, Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, who was dismissed after the outbreak of the case, must appear in court as a suspect. Along with other summonses, such as the one that calls on Globalia’s CEO Javier Hidalgo to testify on September 12, Judge Moreno is reactivating the investigation of the Koldo case after the Supreme Court upheld his jurisdiction.
The past week, the high court confirmed that it is the National Court judge who must continue to lead this investigation and not the European Prosecutor’s Office, which was seeking the case as it believed that some contracts involved European funds. Following this decision, the judge has scheduled a series of hearings for September at the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which sought the indictment of the high-ranking officials after a report by the Civil Guard highlighted the alleged role they played in the scheme. According to the report, the Prosecutor’s Office believes that the three new suspects exerted “certain pressures” on officials responsible for awarding mask contracts “without any option to challenge the final decision to award the contract to the Soluciones de Gestión company, which is at the center of the investigation. This conduct could constitute a crime of influence peddling, the prosecutor argued, mentioning emails in which the Undersecretary of Transport, Jesús Manuel Gómez, “appears to act as a conduit between the minister’s inner circle and the awarding entities.”
After the statements of these suspects, Globalia’s CEO Javier Hidalgo will testify on September 12 as a witness, following a report by the Tax Agency linking the “rescue” of Air Europa with the business activities of Víctor de Aldama, who offered to sell masks to the Ministry of Transport. After Hidalgo, the judge has summoned nine more witnesses requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, including various officials from Transport, Ports of the State, and Adif at the time the contracts under suspicion were awarded to the Soluciones de Gestión company. On September 13, former Ports of the State President Francisco Lobo will testify, along with two department heads of the same entity; three days later, former Adif President Isabel Pardo de Vera will testify along with another high-ranking official, and on September 17, two more Adif executives are scheduled to appear. The list of witnesses will be concluded by the former Director General of Organization and Inspection of Transport and current Director General of Budgets at the Ministry of Finance, Javier Sánchez Fuentefría, and Daniel Belmar, Subdirector of the State Secretary of Security. The judge considers all these testimonies “relevant, useful, and necessary” for the clarification of the facts.
Overall, the judge is seeking to shed light on the alleged irregularities surrounding the awarding of mask contracts during the pandemic, as well as the possible influence exerted by high-ranking officials in the decision-making process. The investigation has gained momentum with the recent summonses of additional suspects and witnesses, as well as the confirmation of the National Court’s jurisdiction by the Supreme Court. The prosecutor’s office has pointed to specific emails and reports that suggest a coordinated effort to manipulate the awarding of contracts to benefit specific companies, raising concerns about potential corruption. The involvement of key figures from various government agencies adds complexity to the case, as the judge continues to unravel the web of connections and decisions that led to the alleged misconduct. The upcoming hearings are expected to provide further insights into the inner workings of the scheme and determine the extent of the wrongdoing that may have occurred.
