Osàcar insinuates that Mas knew about money laundering at CDC but places Gordó at the helm

BarcelonaFormer CDC treasurer Daniel Osàcar has changed his defense strategy. The man loyal to Convergència who He defended the party while Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull confessed to the irregular financing of the party through the Palau de la Música has now decided, after feeling abandoned by the party and changing lawyers, that he has nothing left to lose. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office also pocketed the CDC. The former treasurer of the Convergent Party has already admitted to the judge in the case that the party had laundered money.This Tuesday, he raised his eyebrows in a new court statement. According to judicial sources consulted by ARA, Osàcar allegedly insinuated that former president Artur Mas must have been aware of this system, through which several high-ranking CDC officials laundered commission money that flowed to the party, given the party's hierarchy and the fact that the leader of the system was his right-hand man, former minister Germ.

The ruling in the Palau case He confirmed the irregular financing of the party through commissions, but neither the investigation of the case nor the trial were able to go any further, and responsibility for these illegal operations was limited to former treasurers Carles Torrent (who died during the investigation) and Daniel Osàcar. The National Court judge in charge of the investigation into the 3% case has also reached the level of the party's former treasurers (in addition to Osàcar, his successor, Andreu Viloca, is also under investigation). Some time ago, he managed to make a qualitative leap by linking one of Mas's confidants, Gordó, to the alleged plot. In fact, The National Court has already prosecuted Gordó for illegal financing. of the party and continues to investigate him in another part of the case for the laundering of alleged commissions, along with former councilors Jordi Jané, Felip Puig, Irene Rigau and Pere Macias.

It is within the framework of this investigation that Osácar has testified again this past week. His testimony represents a new qualitative leap that allows investigators to reach the highest level of accountability for the party, one of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office's objectives since it took over the 3% case. According to the sources consulted, Osácar was especially forceful in explaining how the commission laundering system worked and pointed to Gordó as the man pulling the strings of the entire scheme. The former treasurer has endorsed the thesis of the judge and the Prosecutor's Office, which considers that, for years, the party had received irregular commissions in exchange for public works contracts—during the period when CDC led the Generalitat—and in exchange for preferential treatment when it was already in opposition.

The former CDC treasurer didn't hesitate to point out that Gordó was the one running the system, but he was more subtle when asked if Mas, then the party's secretary general, was aware of it. Osàcar acknowledged that he has no material evidence because no one had ever told him directly, but—according to the sources consulted—he recalled that Convergència was a very hierarchical party and that Mas met daily with Gordó—who was then the party's manager. He also pointed out the influence the former minister had as a strongman of the party and as the former president's right-hand man, and exemplified this by recalling that Gordó was not only the party's manager but was later appointed "nothing less" than secretary of Mas's government. It's another matter to what extent this statement gives the Prosecutor's Office the tools to request an investigation into the former president of the Generalitat.

Jané and Crespo, also singled out

Osácar's statement didn't end there. In fact, Judge José de la Mata and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor José Grinda traveled from Madrid to Barcelona to take another statement from the former treasurer of the Convergent Party, after confirming Osácar's change in strategy last week, which made it clear he was willing to lift the rug. However, his first statement was cut short due to technical problems with the videoconference system. According to the sources consulted, beyond confirming the system of laundering irregular commissions within the party, Osácar indicated that several party officials made transfers to the party—in the form of donations and membership fees—and that he himself, as treasurer, returned the money to them in cash.

Among the former officials who made these contributions, Osàcar has pointed to the former Minister of the Interior Jordi Jané and the former CDC deputy in the Parliament and former mayor of Lloret de Mar, Xavier Crespo, an old acquaintance of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which already investigated him for having accepted bribes from a Russian businessman in exchange for the processing of a town planning project in Lloret de Mar. The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) already banned him from holding office for nine years, but the Supreme Court later reduced the sentence. to two and a half years of disqualification.

However, according to the sources consulted, the former treasurer of CDC has clearly exonerated other former party officials investigated by the judge, such as former councilors Felip Puig, Irene Rigau, Pere Macias, the former mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias or the former president of Cesicat CF. According to Osácar, all of them were implicated and he received it. Rigau's defense has already announced that it will ask the National Court to close its part of the investigation. Osácar has also insisted that he never kept a single cent. In fact, the ruling in the Palau de la Música case It placed him as one of the legs of the system of transferring illegal commissions to the party through the cultural institution, but exonerated him of having pocketed money for participating in the system, unlike Millet and Montull.

This Tuesday, the former head of Convergent finances was also questioned about the source of the commissions allegedly laundered at CDC. According to sources consulted, the former treasurer explained that he was unaware of the list of businessmen who made donations to the party and that it was controlled by Gordó. Next Monday, the judge plans to question Osácar's successor as treasurer, Andreu Viloca, one of the first arrested in the 3% case.