The National Court will investigate the cash payments made by the PSOE to Ábalos and Koldo García

BarcelonaThe judge at the National Court presiding over the Koldo García case, Ismael Moreno, has decided to open a separate investigation into cash payments made by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) to former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and his advisor Koldo García. This decision comes after the judge received a ruling from Supreme Court Justice Leopoldo Puente, requesting the National Court to investigate these payments, which the party claims were used to cover justified expenses.

In the ruling sent to Moreno, Judge Puente considers that there are "unknowns" regarding the cash payments, such as the suspicion of hypothetical irregular financing of the PSOE and also of possible money laundering. The PSOE has always argued that the cash payments correspond to the settlement of justified expenses, a point that the National Court will now have to investigate to determine whether or not this is the case.

Once the decision was made public, the Secretary General of the PP, Miguel Tellado, commented via X: "Now the Socialist leaders will have the opportunity to answer before a judge the question that Feijóo asked Sánchez in Congress," referring to whether the Secretary General of the PSOE could affirm himself. Cuca Gamarra, Deputy Secretary for Institutional Regeneration of the conservatives, also commented, saying that "everything that Sánchez doesn't know about, is well known in the courts."

Cash payments and commissions

In Thursday's ruling detailing the opening of a separate case, the National Court judge explains that the documentation sent by the Supreme Court—which Ismael Moreno has incorporated into the case he has opened—includes the report from the Civil Guard's Central Operational Unit (UCO) on Ábalos's assets and the PSOE's own statements regarding these cash payments. It also includes the statements made before the Supreme Court by the party's former manager, Mariano Moreno; Ferraz employee Celia Rodríguez; and businesswoman Carmen Pano, who claimed to have delivered €90,000 in cash at the PSOE headquarters. A week ago, on October 31, Judge Puente passed the case to the National Court because he believed the cash payments to Ferraz should be investigated. However, at the same time, there is no evidence linking these cash payments to the alleged commissions from which Ábalos and Koldo are said to have benefited. This last issue, the commissions, is the main part of Puente's investigation in the Supreme Court, and the judge considered that since the cash payments are not "inextricably" linked to his investigation, another court should specifically investigate this matter.