One of the partners of the eldest son of the Pujol family admits to having paid him 112 million pesetas without contracts.

San Fernando de HenaresThe trial of the Pujol Ferrusola family has resumed at the National Court, far from the media spotlight. Without photographers and with only seven journalists following the proceedings from San Fernando de Henares, five witnesses testified remotely, though the connection wasn't always easy to understand. Only two of the defendants were present in person: Jordi Pujol Ferrusola and businessman Francesc Robert Ribes. The star witnesses were Joan Anton Sánchez Carreté, the family's tax advisor, who recounted what happened behind the scenes after July 7th. The World He published a screenshot with the Pujol family's bank information in Andorra; and the brother of former minister Felip Puig, Jordi Puig, admitted that there was no "formal contract" that proved what his company billed to a company owned by the eldest son and Mercè Gironès.

Jordi Puig, a personal friend of the eldest son and his co-office partner on Ganduxer Street, has admitted that there are no documents proving the services for which his company, IBADESA, paid 112 million pesetas (equivalent to €673,000 today) to IMISA, one of the companies co-owned by the Pujol couple. "But what exactly were the services provided?" prosecutor Fernando Bermejo pressed, expressing surprise at the "significant amount" involved and complaining that the supporting documentation requested during the investigation never arrived. "I don't recall the details," Puig replied. However, he described his activities as acting as an intermediary between Spanish companies and developing countries to facilitate the "purchase and sale of materials or resources" between 1996 and 1998.

The account of the Pujol family's tax advisor

The other witness who garnered attention was Joan Anton Sánchez Carreté. The Pujol family's tax advisor explained that on July 7th, the same day the newspaper's front page was published, The World Regarding the family, he was summoned by the family's lawyers, Xavier Melero and Albert Carrillo, to discuss how to regularize the funds they held abroad that had not been declared to the tax authorities: "They asked for my opinion and to coordinate with the advisors if supplementary tax returns needed to be filed," he explained. They provided him with a series of documents for this purpose. Neither the former president of the Generalitat nor his eldest son were present at the meeting, but Marta Ferrusola—Pujol's wife—and some of his children did attend. Eighteen days later, Jordi Pujol publicly confessed in a statement that he had money in Andorra.

Under questioning by the prosecutor, Sánchez Carreté acknowledged that the supplementary tax returns—which were filed on July 14—were prepared with "partial documentation" and "in great haste." But, when questioned by Pau Ferrer—the lawyer for four of the former Catalan president's children—he clarified that months later he confirmed that "they were indeed correct." The urgency of 2014 meant that the family's lawyers subsequently sent him the information so he could verify that everything was in order, especially after the Tax Agency opened an investigation into the children in August 2014. He verified that the documentation matched the supplementary returns and they asked him if he could trace the movement of funds to determine their origin, but he was unable to: "I found myself unable to do so and advised them to consult an auditor."

All this data, which was on a USB drive, is what the UDEF – the Central Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit – seized when they raided his office in October 2015. And this is where doubts and suspicions have arisen. The banking information of all the Pujol siblings was on a single USB drive, but Judge José de la Mata had warned that any documentation not belonging to the eldest son and Mercè Gironès – his ex-wife – should be set aside, as they were the only ones under investigation. However, the judicial police took everything. Sánchez Carreté handed it over "believing" that "the court order would be followed." However, this is one of the reasons why the defense attorneys for the eldest son and Josep Pujol requested the annulment of the search.

The eldest son's business dealings

Who else testified this Monday? Lawyer Vicente Agramunt admitted that he was unaware that the company he established in Costa Rica, which is part of the case due to his connection with the eldest son, had any "real activity." This testimony does not favor the eldest Pujol son, since, according to the UDEF (Financial and Economic Crime Unit), this company abroad served to "hide or convert" the profits from "alleged criminal activities." Meanwhile, businessman Salvador Heras stated that he agreed to a "fixed monthly payment" of 200,000 pesetas with Jordi Pujol Ferrusola for a joint professional relationship in which they collaborated on various projects related to the Port of Barcelona. And Ignasi Armengol simply replied that he had no recollection of the agreement signed by TMB (the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport Authority) – where he was the director of the bus network – with World Wide Ecofuel, a company that paid 17,000 euros to a company owned by the eldest son.

Without Carlos Vilarrubí

Monday's session was the first without businessman and former Barça vice-president Carles Vilarrubí, whodiedHe died on December 28th at the age of 71. He was accused of money laundering and falsifying commercial documents, and faced a prison sentence of between two and five years. Although the presiding judge, José Ricardo de Prada, admitted that the National Court has not yet received the death certificate—only then can it issue the ruling extinguishing criminal liability—his death is a "notorious and publicly known fact," and therefore he was excluded from the trial. In fact, his lawyer, Emilio J. Zegrí, did not attend.