This is how the Mossos d'Esquadra uncovered the Montoro case
The investigation, which has involved clashes with the Civil Guard, began with a chance discovery during the most tense moments of the Procés.
BarcelonaOn November 9, 2017, all political and media attention in Catalonia was focused on Plaza Villa de París in Madrid, at the Supreme Court. Members of the Parliament's board, led by Carme Forcadell, paraded through there, facing the threat of ending up in pretrial detention—which was what happened that night for the speaker of the chamber—just as a few days earlier had happened to half of the Catalan government and also to the leaders of the ANC and Ómnium (Carles Puigdemont was already in Belgium). Mariano Rajoy was leading the Spanish government and just over ten days before, he had invoked Article 155 to quell the declaration of independence in the Parliament. But while all this was happening and Catalonia was experiencing its most tense weeks since the restoration of democracy, the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) had its eye on another location: the company Messer Ibérica de Gases SA (Tarragona). That day, a search was scheduled, which unexpectedly led them to uncover one of the most sophisticated cases of alleged corruption since the end of the dictatorship: the Montoro case.
In the fall of 2017, the Catalan police were handling a case assigned to the Tarragona Court of Instruction No. 2, where an alleged crime against land use planning and public administration was being investigated. The suspicion was that the company Messer Ibérica de Gases had built a plant without the necessary permits, and consequently, the role of the El Morell City Council, governed at the time by CiU, was also in question. On November 9, 2017, the magistrate authorized the police to conduct searches and seize physical documents and emails that were of interest to the investigation. He instructed them to go "simultaneously" to Messer's headquarters, the Tarragona-Salou highway, and the Morell plant of the same company; and, once completed, they should be submitted to the municipal council.
A suspicious email
From the headquarters of Messer Ibérica de Gases, in the Vila-seca industrial estate, you can see Port Aventura's highest attractions. At nine in the morning, officers from the Criminal Investigation Unit (AIC) of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) of Tarragona (Catalan police), unaware that they will extract documents that will lead them to Montoro.
From this registry, they extract reams of information. They organize and analyze it. One of the most meticulous parts is sifting through the emails; separating the wheat from the chaff. Searching for keywords is a helpful filter: "pay," "concept," "euro" [...]. An agent from the Tarragona Criminal Investigation Area has a special eye—those who have seen him work say—that didn't fail him on this occasion. He finds a gold mine, apart from the central case, that points to one of the most powerful people at the time, the Spanish government's Minister of Finance. In legal terms, this is what is called a "chance encounter" which, despite being a restrictive means to avoid prospective investigations, allows the police to open new lines of investigation if there are indications of a crime. This was the case in that case.
The "direct route" to Montoro
It was 8:30 a.m. on December 5, 2013. Rubén Folgado, technical director of Messer Ibérica, clicked the send button. It was an email addressed to Karl Hauck, undersecretary of the same company, and said: "The most direct way, as always, is to pay that economic team that has direct contact with the Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montero." While analyzing all the documentation, the Mossos d'Esquadra investigator read this email and became suspicious. It mentions a member of the Spanish government, payments, and an office that turns out to be the Economic Team. The timing couldn't be more complicated: provisionally, the head of the force at that time is Ferran López, and Josep Lluís Trapero is charged with sedition in the National Court along with the rest of the police leadership. The Generalitat (Catalan government) is under intervention under Article 155, which means that de facto Montoro is part of the government that oversees the Mossos d'Esquadra, as Minister of Economy.
With the utmost discretion, the investigator who found the email discusses it with his superiors at the AIC in Tarragona. They then travel to Sabadell, to the Mossos d'Esquadra Central Complex, and share the information with the heads of criminal investigation. The email is only a small piece of evidence, and they agree they need more information. They want to know if there's a basis to go further and ask the judge to open a separate case. They review the entire email history and see that Folgado and Hauck are discussing the modification of the electricity tax: they're seeking an 85% tax exemption they've been pursuing for years, and Equipo Económico (EE), a law firm founded by Montoro himself, appears as the "direct route" to obtaining that multi-million-dollar exemption. Using open sources, such as newspaper reports, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) are seeking context about the law, what happened in 2013, and how this modification was finally approved after the payment to the US. These are weeks of intensive work, and on April 20, 2018, the Catalan police present everything to the judge investigating the Messer Ibérica case, so that he can open a new case.
"Your Honorable Judge [...]. The purpose of this letter is to inform you about some facts, detected within the framework of the investigation related to your preliminary proceedings, which should be the subject of investigation, since they present the characteristics of a criminal offense," say the Mossos d'Esquadra, in addition to informing that this separate piece will be led by the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Catalan police, part of the Criminal Investigation Division, then headed by Superintendent Toni Rodríguez, who will be dismissed three years later when ERC takes over the Interior Ministry. In parallel to the secret Montoro case, the same unit will also investigate, around the same time, the case of former minister Laura Borràs and, later, former Interior Minister Miquel Buch for protecting Puigdemont.
A rare bird of a judge
This gold mine, which pointed to Montoro, then the all-powerful Finance Minister in Mariano Rajoy's government, wasn't the first time it had hovered over the courts. In 2017, the Madrid Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office received a complaint alleging illegal peddling by the PP leader, but it was shelved. What made anyone think that at that time, from Tarragona, a judge would actually pursue the investigation? This was possible because the magistrate in charge, Ruben Rus Varela, is a rare bird.
"Very discreet," "no desire to be the center of attention," and "exquisite in his manner," notes one professional. "He has few heartbeats," comments another. In short, one outsider A member of the judiciary who strangely wears a tie and used to smoke outside the Tarragona courthouse. When he sees the evidence from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) against Montoro, he doesn't hesitate. He decides to endorse the Mossos d'Esquadra in a written statement dated August 2, 2018.
The latest budgets
The PP didn't know what was coming, but it was already having a tough time. The conviction in the Gürtel case led, on May 31, 2018, to an unprecedented motion of censure by the left-wing and plurinational forces against Mariano Rajoy, which ended with Pedro Sánchez in the Moncloa Palace. However, due to the Mossos d'Esquadra case, before leaving the Treasury, Montoro did something significant for the gas companies: he approved the budget bill on May 24 in Congress, which would help them save money again after hiring the Economic Team. To understand this, you have to go back a few months.
October 16, 2017, is a day Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart will never forget. Early in the morning, they went to the National Court and never left: they were remanded in custody. On the same day, the Association of Industrial and Medicinal Gas Manufacturers (AFGIM) meets, breathing heavily. The Economic Team had warned them that the situation in Catalonia could "contaminate" the approval of the state budget, but at that meeting they confirmed that the tax changes they were demanding would nevertheless take place. Camouflaged among the budgets is a change to the tax on economic activities (IAE) to reduce their tax burden. They had been trying this unsuccessfully for years (since the beginning of the century), and after the electricity tax operation, they decided to try it again with the Economic Team, and it worked out well again. Despite the vote of no confidence, Montoro's budget was approved in the Senate and finally in Congress on June 28, 2018. Already a former minister—then incumbent María Jesús Montero—Montoro celebrated the approval of the budget from the Spanish parliament, applauding. With the multi-million-dollar payments to the Economic Team, the gas companies 51 million euros will be saved in taxes.
Sleepless nights
With judicial approval on August 2, 2018, one of the most intense investigations ever undertaken by the Mossos d'Esquadra began. They spent the day reviewing emails, communications, and reports requested from the Tax Agency on the accounts of EE and those involved. They also listened to Montoro's speeches from the time in Congress and studied tax legislation. They also relied on an anonymous complaint from 2017, submitted to the case in 2019, which included information about the modus operandi of the PP leader. Such is his dedication that at night it's hard to sleep and forget about the alleged corruption plot.
Documentary sources are also combined with interviews with human sources. They speak with congressmen of the time, journalists threatened by Montoro, with experts in moving behind the scenes in Congress, and with regulars in the offices of the Moncloa Palace and companies in Madrid. They are not always welcome to ask questions, but new lines of investigation emerge from all of this: they see similar operations in the case of electricity companies, tobacco companies, gambling companies, renewable energy companies, slurry companies... They follow the money, which enters the Economic Team and leaves the office to other front companies, they locate front men, etc.
The investigation flows to the point that the Mossos d'Esquadra have only one option to continue: go to the Ministry of Finance and the offices of the Economic Team. And there the limitation is absolute because, as the police force of Catalonia, they cannot operate beyond the administrative borders of the Principality.
Carmen García Cerdá is the prosecutor on the case, and so far she's given the investigation a boost. She's an experienced professional in corruption cases, having worked on the Púnica and Lezo cases. "She's passionate about the issues."say those who know her–. At this point in the investigation, they need the collaboration of the other state security forces, and it is she who decides to entrust the case to the Civil Guard as the judicial police force, instead of the National Police. She has worked with them previously and decides to entrust the UCO (Urban Police Unit), headed by Antonio Balas (a name that has recently been in the media spotlight due to the Leire Díez case).
Tension with the Civil Guard
To understand the difficulty of the undertaking, it's necessary to return to the context. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and the Civil Guard are forced to collaborate at a time when the streets of Catalonia are ablaze with protests following the Catalan independence trial (up to 13 years in prison for sedition following the October 1st referendum), and when mistrust between the two police forces still lingers at headquarters in the fall of 2017.
Antonio Balas attends meetings at Mossos d'Esquadra headquarters, fully uniformed, and it shouldn't be long before tensions between the armed forces and the Catalan police begin to surface. Tensions arise over how to conduct the investigation, and tensions arise because the Civil Guard doesn't believe the case to the same extent as the Mossos d'Esquadra. It follows from the same summary: The prosecutor must insist that the Spanish police immediately hand over the results of the bank account and credit card transactions of those under investigation. This is a key element, although some sources close to the case suggest it is not essential, to establish whether Montoro and his Treasury team have enriched themselves (the results of this process have only recently been submitted to the case, with little information, according to some sources).
At the same time, the clash within the Prosecutor's Office is going in crescendoThe head of the State Anti-Corruption Unit, Alejandro Luzón, limits the scope of action of the Public Prosecutor's representative in the case, García Cerdá. An example: the prosecutor reports in favor of wiretapping five suspects. The Mossos d'Esquadra's wiretaps, despite being short on time, are bearing fruit, but Luzón doesn't see it clearly and asks to overturn the judicial endorsement. The Tarragona Court will rule in his favor.
Another part of the investigation into the leak of celebrities' tax data by Montoro also remains up in the air: Rafa Nadal, Baroness Thyssen, Jordi Pujol, the Gürtel scandal... in this case, Judge Rus sees no crime and decides to focus on the other aspects of the investigation. And so we come to July 16 of this year, when the judge decides to charge Montoro and all those involved and lift part of the secrecy of the summary. The political and economic upheaval caused by the case, initiated by the keen eye of an officer, is of enormous magnitude. However, the investigation is still ongoing, and many questions remain unanswered. But there is no doubt that, for the Mossos d'Esquadra, who have been so often questioned, it has been a great boost of self-esteem.