BBVA, the first Ibex company on the verge of trial in the Villarejo case

MadridThe National Court has confirmed that there is sufficient evidence to send BBVA, as a legal entity, to trial, along with Francisco González, who was president of the financial institution between 2000 and 2018, and twelve other individuals, including senior executives of the bank and police officials, in the Villarejo case. Thus, BBVA is, for now, the first and only company in the Ibex-35 to go to trial in this case, while other implicated companies such as Repsol, CaixaBank, and Iberdrola have not been required to appear in court. In a ruling made public this Friday morning, the Criminal Chamber of the National Court considers that there is sufficient evidence for the defendants to stand trial for alleged crimes of continuous bribery and the discovery and disclosure of secrets resulting from the hiring of the now-retired police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. The entity then headed by Francisco González hired Cenyt, Villarejo's company, to spy on the construction company Sacyr. The judges of the National Court have thus dismissed in full the eleven appeals filed against the ruling issued by former investigating judge Manuel García Castellón in the summer of 2024, when he decided to send the Bilbao-based entity and the rest of Francisco's associates to trial. In line with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the Criminal Chamber of the National Court is prosecuting the bank and endorsing the investigating judge's argument that the entity's claim of ignorance regarding the events was not credible. As for Francisco González, the judges also interpret that there is evidence suggesting that the former president knew that the information Villarejo's company obtained was through practices that "did not respect the law." In the summer of 2024, Judge García-Castellón, now retired, brought to a close the investigation, initiated in 2018, of separate case number 9 of the so-called Tándem case, the operation investigating the spying on companies and individuals by retired police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. There is no further possibility of appealing the decision made public this Friday. The next step is to issue the order to open the oral proceedings and set the trial date. However, it should be noted that the current president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, is not listed as a suspect. "BBVA's priority has always been full cooperation with the Justice system [...] It has always maintained, and continues to maintain, that the investigated facts do not give rise to criminal liability for the institution," the bank stated, adding that the members of the current board of directors "have no connection" with the case.