The judge Peinado opens a new line of investigation in the case of Begoña Gómez for two new crimes

MadridWhile all eyes were waiting for Juan Carlos Peinado the investigation was closed in April after two years of instruction– deals with the crimes of embezzlement, influence peddling, business corruption, and misappropriation. Sources from Moncloa have rushed to criticize the decision: "It is a blunder," they lament. "Begoña Gómez has no connection with this contract and there is no letter of recommendation or management in this regard," add the same voices.

What is under the magnifying glass? In a decree of June 8 that el ARA has accessed, the European Public Prosecutor's Office explained that the report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard on emails related to the two contracts that were under scrutiny "mentions" a file relating to the Accelera Pime Office Service-Support and advisory service, which "was not the subject of investigation" in the case. The contractor was the UTE – Temporary Union of Companies – between Innova Next – Barrabés's company – and KPMG. It was financed with FEDER funds – European Regional Development Fund – and its processing was "parallel" to the other two files.

What is the suspicion? From the UCO report, it is inferred that the "non-existence" of a white paper, which was required in the tender documents as a necessary requirement and on which "value judgments depend," and for which the UTE "was awarded the highest score," was "overlooked." And this led to it being awarded the contract. The European Public Prosecutor's Office argues that this fact would have been "deliberately concealed" in the valuation reports so that it "would not be detected" by other bidders. The Civil Guard detected it when analyzing the content of the emails about the procedures being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office: the signatory of the valuation reports in the three procedures was the same. The European Public Prosecutor's Office summarizes it as follows: "The reference found reflects the deliberate omission of data that should have been included in the valuation report, in order to award it to a specific bidder".

What was being investigated until now? Some contracts that the public company Red.es awarded to the UTE formed by Innova Next and Escuela de Negocios The Valley. Just a year ago, the judge sent this scope of the investigation to the European Prosecutor's Office. During all this time, there has been a report from the General Intervention of the State Administration, different interventions by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, and numerous statements from witnesses of bidders and members of Red.es. One of the keys is a UCO report on electronic communications relating to the two suspicious files.