Former advisor accused of using Elvas companies to launder money
Spanish authorities believe that “a business entanglement in Portugal was used to embezzle and launder money from public contracts between the government of Pedro Sánchez and the president of Zamora Football Club, Víctor Aldama”.
Expresso explains “this is the ‘Koldo case’, which has direct repercussions for the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) – and the Sánchez government – with Koldo García, a former advisor, and José Ábalos, Minister for Development and Transport, accused of receiving bribes from the President of Zamora FC, Víctor de Aldama, in exchange for millionaire public contracts for the purchase of clinical equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s hard to believe that four apparently unsuspecting companies, located on the outskirts of Elvas, near the Amoreira Aqueduct, and all based at the same address – an empty space in an office building – are under investigation by the Guardia Civil’s Anti-Corruption Unit and the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Economic and Organised Crime Department on suspicion of money laundering and tax evasion”, says the paper.
But under investigation they most certainly are.
As SIC journalist Belén Rodrigo concedes, it’s a ‘political earthquake’ that is actually difficult to follow. T
he Portuguese ‘link’ appears circumstantial (there is no inference that this scandal involves any kind of direct Portuguese involvement).
Explains Expresso: “The prosecution assumes that these assets were acquired by firms registered in Portugal with money from ‘suspicious’ public contracts awarded by the Spanish government (for equipment purchases made during the pandemic).
“According to the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office, part of the €55 million received by Víctor Aldama’s company, ‘Soluciones de Gestión’ (a company unrelated to the healthcare sector which went from zero turnover in 2019 to almost €54 million in 2020) was hidden in a network of companies in Portugal, which laundered it into assets.
“For example, a Ferrari F12, ‘purchased with part of the funds under investigation and placed in the name of a Portuguese company’.
“Also real estate, because the company ‘Atmosferaudaz’, based in Elvas, ‘represented by Aldama, bought a house in an urbanisation in Madrid for €2 million’.
“In a wiretap, in fact, Aldama boasts of having ‘moved all his assets to Portugal’ as a solution to the high taxes in Spain”, says the paper.
It was this form of “telephone interception” that allowed Spanish authorities to make the link between Aldama’s fortune and the PSOE.
“There is evidence of an indirect Koldo – Aldama link through the Corvillo Aguilar brothers”, reads police report. Cristian Corvillo held positions on the PSOE executive in Córdoba and his brother, Rubén Corvillo, was a councillor for the Socialists in Zamora.
“Rubén Corvillo has common business interests with Víctor Aldana, including companies in Portugal.
“The companies in Portugal, according to the indictment, were registered in the name of the president of Zamora FC and four other partners” who “met regularly with Koldo García.
“In addition to the companies in Elvas, three others in Lisbon, based in a room in an office block on Avenida do Atlântico in Parque das Nações, were used to manage money from ‘suspicious contracts’ and invest it in property”, Expresso continues.
Spanish authorities conclude that ‘Aldama set up companies in Portugal in order not to be taxed in Spain’, and to empty the companies registered on the other side of the border.
Outlining this latest ‘scandal’, Belén Rodrigues says it involves “several members of the Sánchez government“. So far, around 20 people have been arrested, with suspicions involving influence trafficking, passive corruption, money laundering and criminal association.
“It is a very complicated case to follow”, Rodrigues reiterated on SIC today. “There are a lot of names on the table” – not to mention a lot of money, of which “a minimum of €10 million” is believed to have been in bribes.
Source material: Expresso/ SIC
