Aldama points to Sánchez in the Supreme Court: "He was in the first tier of the criminal gang"

MadridKey day in the mask case trial at the Supreme Court. After ten sessions, it is the turn of the declarations of the three defendants: José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García and Víctor de Aldama. The only one who could be interrogated this Wednesday was the businessman and alleged facilitator of the plot, who agreed to collaborate with justice a year and a half ago when he was in preventive detention –"what a invention", replied Pedro Sánchez– and for whom the Prosecutor's Office requests a much lower penalty than for the rest of the defendants. Just as he did at that initial moment of the investigation, he has decided to elaborate, stretch the blanket and point directly to Pedro Sánchez. Without providing evidence and relying solely on his word, he has given meticulous details to try to accredit his privileged access to the spheres of power, has detailed the roadmap of the alleged corruption and has expressed "remorse". "If there is a hierarchy of a criminal organization, Sánchez is in the first echelon", he said. "I was told that the president knew everything", he added in a statement that lasted more than six and a half hours.

The other main point of his statement has been about the financing of the PSOE. In fact, there is an embryonic piece in the National Court that is investigating the cash that was moved in Ferraz. Víctor de Aldama has ratified that he paid 10,000 euros a month to Ábalos and Koldo for his "fixed expenses", to maintain "good cordiality" with them and to "keep them happy". "They always told me that part of that money went to the financing of the Socialist Party", he has highlighted. And he has stated that Koldo told him that Sánchez "knew and was clear" about everything they were doing. In total, he would have handed over between three and a half and four million euros. He said that the gifts "were given assiduously" and he even went so far as to assure that he carried 250,000 euros in a backpack to the Ministry of Transport.

The second leg that has splashed the finances of the PSOE has to do with construction companies. The alleged irregularities in public works tenders are also being investigated in the National Court in the so-called Cerdán case. In 2019, Koldo would have introduced Aldama to construction companies that worked for the ministry: "We have to see how we can help them so that they get the tender. In the end they will get it, but if we help them win, we can have a return that we need for the financing of the party", he recalled that Ábalos's advisor would have explained to him. Aldama was surprised until he understood: "It's not a normal donation, we are committing an illegality". Later, he reiterated that Koldo had spoken to him about a "very important contract" for the manufacture of trains that could help "finance the party".

Regarding the PSOE's finances, he made a final remark: "Between 2019 and 2020, I have handed over more than 1.8 million euros. If you look at the party's accounts, there is a significant spike in donations in these months, you will be able to see where the money has come from," he stressed. Leticia de la Hoz, Koldo García's lawyer, questioned Aldama's statements, pointing out that he has no "element of proof beyond his own word" to accredit the money deliveries. And he resorted to irony: "They don't give me a receipt at the bank, cash that has been delivered cannot be proven."

The meeting with Sánchez

Aldama also recalled how he met Pedro Sánchez. It was in February 2019, at the end of a PSOE rally in Madrid: "I get up, I approach Koldo and he tells me to go with him behind the theater, that there is a private area where the president will receive me," he recounted. And he recalled what the Spanish president told him: "Thank you very much for everything, I know perfectly well what you are doing and I just wanted to thank you."

The purchase of masks played a rather secondary role during the interrogation. "No other companies or offers were sought, everything was known before it was made official with a ministerial order," said Aldama. By the way, the National Court has once again summoned both the businessman and Koldo García next Thursday, May 14, after the Prosecutor's Office attributed influence peddling to them for the purchase of masks in the Balearic Islands.

The PSOE requests protection from the Supreme Court

Meanwhile, Ferraz has discredited Aldama's words: "Unsubstantiated accusations because there is no crime to substantiate. Lie after lie," socialist sources have denounced. "We will not allow ourselves to be defamed with impunity," the same voices have added, announcing that the PSOE will request protection from the Supreme Court. Along the same lines, the party's organization secretary, Rebeca Torró, has denounced that the lies are Aldama's "defense strategy." On the other hand, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, believes that everything Aldama has explained is "very serious" because he has pointed to the Spanish president as "number 1 of a criminal organization and concealer and accomplice of several crimes." "If [Sánchez] has not filed a lawsuit, then it is not made up at all," he concluded at a rally in Andalusia.