Where do the money bags from the PSOE headquarters come from? The contradictions of the businesswoman who says she brought them

MadridThe key witness in the third session of the trial against José Luis Ábalos was Carmen Pano. And her statement followed the script: as she said at the Audiencia Nacional, during the investigation at the Supreme Court and at the Senate's investigation committee, she reiterated and to the Senate's investigation committee, But there was a second delivery that raises more doubts. Carmen Pano first said that the "operation" was that Claudio Rivas made transfers to her accounts and she withdrew the money in cash. And it wasn't until half an hour later that she admitted that in the second case she didn't directly withdraw the money from the bank, but rather a certain Lolo, a "worker or friend" of Claudio Rivas, brought it to her home. She didn't get to count it, but – in theory – there were also 45,000 euros. She took it back to Aldama's office, but later he called her "quite angry" and told her that 10,000 euros were missing. "Therefore, I deduce that there were 35,000 euros," the businesswoman acknowledged. This is a point that only came to light at the end of her statement, after spending a long time equating the two deliveries and without having mentioned this unforeseen event.

Faced with Aldama's complaints, she withdrew 10,000 euros from her account at Banco Santander and brought them to him the next day. “She tells me again if I can do her the favor of bringing this money to Ferraz street and I tell her it's the last time I do these kinds of favors,” she recalled. On that occasion, she went with her chauffeur, Álvaro Gallego. And here another leak has appeared in the story. Gallego was the first witness to testify and explained that the day they went to Ferraz he saw an “emissary” of Claudio Rivas bring the money to Carmen Pano's house. However, according to Pano's testimony, Claudio Rivas's envoy had visited her the day before, when the chauffeur was not there.

Most of the bills were 50 euros, although there were also 100 euro bills. What both versions agree on is that the money was in a white plastic bag which was at the same time inside a brown cardboard bag. The chauffeur saw the bills in passing: “There were bundles of bills,” he indicated. Carmen Pano believes that the whole thing was aimed at the company Villafuel obtaining the hydrocarbon operator license, even though the timings don't fit either. The first meeting to manage it was two months later and they didn't get the license until two years later, with Ábalos out of the cabinet. This morning the PSOE insisted that the cash, which Koldo's brother also claimed this week he had gone to pick up at the PSOE headquarters, comes from their accounts: "We are clean. We are not discovering anything new. Everything fits mimetic ally," said socialist spokesperson Montse Mínguez.

Who drove to the Ministry of Industry?

Another blatant contradiction has been precisely regarding the meeting that took place in December 2020 at the Ministry of Industry to discuss a hydrocarbons license. Carmen Pano, Claudio Rivas, and two engineers from Cordoba attended. Álvaro Gallego – the driver – assured that he was the one who drove them and left them in the "vicinity" of the ministry's headquarters. But Carmen Pano has disavowed him and stated that Claudio Rivas was driving and that Álvaro Gallego was not in the car. He was scheduled to accompany them, but Rivas said there were "too many people" and he did not go in the end.