Montoro's modus operandi against journalists and politicians

BarcelonaThe news about the Montoro case has been coming in since it became known on Wednesday. the indictment of the former PP ministerThe judge believes that the former Treasury Secretary during the governments of Mariano Rajoy and José María Aznar allegedly pushed through legislative changes in exchange for commissions from benefiting companies. But the case may not end there: according to publish this Friday The Vanguard, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office reportedly alerted the magistrate investigating the plot that Montoro received "confidential and sensitive information" from tax audits and court cases involving politicians, celebrities, and journalists. This secret information was allegedly provided to him and members of his team by the former director of the Tax Agency, Santiago Menéndez.

The newspaper claims that the former minister, who This Thursday he resigned from the PPBetween 2011 and 2018, he received "legally protected" information from members of his party, such as Rodrigo Rato, Esperanza Aguirre, and Luis Bárcenas, from Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, the former president's eldest son; this information would demonstrate that the confidential data reached Montoro. What the Tarragona judge handling the case should now investigate is what use the minister made of this information and whether he committed the crime of revealing secrets.

"I was almost certain it was Mr. Montoro," stated Aguirre, former president of the Community of Madrid and one of those affected by this alleged revelation of secrets. In an interview on RNE (National Radio and Television), Aguirre explained that when her tax information was leaked, she asked Rajoy for an explanation, but he ignored her, and Montoro, who didn't pick up the phone. She also reported him to the Prosecutor's Office, but "nothing was done." "What surprised me was knowing that an investigation is underway," said Aguirre, who attributed the leak to an attempt by Rajoy's entourage to remove her from the political leadership.

This is not the only news that has appeared in the media about the alleged corruption affecting the PP. According to Cadena SER has reportedOf the gas companies that reportedly attempted to achieve legislative reforms through the Economic Team office, five of them obtained an 85% discount on the electricity tax in 2014, a discount prohibited by a European directive. informs The Country, gas companies would not be the only ones that would have used the Equipo Económico law firm, founded by Montoro, to achieve favorable legislative reforms. The Mossos d'Esquadra reports, according to sources close to the investigation cited by the newspaper, indicate that companies in the electricity and renewable energy sectors would have also paid commissions to the firm for its "ability to influence the decisions of the executive and legislative branches." Between 2011 and 2015, during Rajoy's term in office, companies in these sectors would have paid Equipo Económico around 7.8 million euros, according to the same article. According to eldiario.es, construction companies such as Ferrovial were also involved in the scheme.

All of this would not have gone unnoticed by Rajoy's government. According to publishes The World, ministers of the former Spanish president warned him of the lobbying role played by Montoro's office. He mentions, for example, the case of the then Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria, who allegedly warned that the Minister of Finance sent him issues of interest to the energy company Abengoa, which in turn had contracted his services. Alberto Núñez Feijóo's first statement on the case: "What needs to be investigated, let it be investigated," he said in a brief message on the social network X.

Apart from the maneuvers between Montoro's cabinet and several companies, the team of the former Minister of Finance would also have interceded in the case of the B fund of the . According to explains The VanguardThis team revised the report prepared by the Treasury Department on the PP's donations, which had been commissioned by National Court Judge Pablo Ruz. The judge had asked the experts to account for the donations received by the PP to see if they exceeded the maximum allowed. Santiago Menéndez, then director of the Tax Agency, sent the report to the director of the cabinet of the Minister of Finance and Secretary of State, Miguel Ferré, for review. The ministry eventually requested the addition of a paragraph to state in writing that a generic inquiry into donations could not be applied to this case.