Why did the judge send Santos Cerdán to prison?

BarcelonaSupreme Court Judge Leopoldo Puente has sent to The current number three of the PSOE has been placed in provisional detention without bail. and right-hand man of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, Santos Cerdán. The Socialist leader, who resigned from all his positions following the Civil Guard report targeting him, defended himself by asserting that it is a case of "political persecution" due to the role he played in bridging the gap between the PNV and EH Bildu, and also with former President Carles Puigdemont. He even predicted that the next to fall would be Minister Félix Bolaños, an interlocutor with ERC. However, the truth is that he has not convinced the judge in any way, and the order ordering his imprisonment is devastating: it places him as the head of the alleged corruption plot and suggests that there may have been more money defrauded and more people involved. Below are the main arguments ofJudge Leopoldo Puente:

The signs

• The judge believes that, after the statement, "there are still very strong indications" that Cerdán participated in acts constituting the crimes of "organized crime, influence peddling, and bribery." He is not only in custody for the crimes, but also for the possible destruction of evidence.

Preeminent position

• Leopoldo Puente believes that the audio recordings made by Koldo García reveal that Cerdán held a prominent position in the alleged criminal plot. "Koldo García is demanding payment from Santos Cerdán for public contracts," the ruling states, adding that the former PSOE organizational secretary also had liaison duties with the companies and distributed the benefits.
• This is how he justifies that, due to his "privileged" position, he can "hide, alter, or disappear evidence relevant to the facts under investigation." This is the difference the judge believes exists between Cerdán and the other two suspects, García and Ábalos, who only have their passports revoked and must appear in court periodically.

The possibility of more suspects

• The judge believes that, taking into account the amounts of the public contracts the suspects were working with, there may be more money defrauded and more people involved, whether individuals or organizations. "If the amount of the monetary award for the improper awarding of the works had, hypothetically, constituted 1% of the value of the contracts, this award would be equivalent to an amount exceeding five million euros, greater than the share that would apparently correspond to Ábalos and García. This reinforces the idea that more individuals or legal entities were awarded contracts," the judge ruled. Thus, he points out two things: that there may be more money obtained irregularly—commissions in exchange for public works—and also that there would be more beneficiaries. For now, the judge has not pointed to illegal financing of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), but speaking of "legal entities" suggests that he does not rule out the possibility that the investigation could extend beyond specific individuals.

The credibility of the audios

• Unlike the defense, which questions them, the judge considers the incriminating audio recordings against Santos Cerdán to be valid. He emphasizes that they were not obtained from the police's wiretapping of his communications, but were discovered during a search of Koldo García's home and his devices. "[The audio recordings] were found in the possession of one of the suspects, who, for some reason not difficult to imagine, decided to record and keep them," the judge says.
• Leopoldo Puente further believes the audio recordings are credible because they were not voluntarily handed over by Koldo García, he asserts, but were obtained by the police as a result of a body search. "Under these circumstances, it seems difficult to conceive, given the poor sound quality, that they were not actually produced and that they were the result of artificial manipulation by Koldo García using artificial intelligence," the ruling states, also ruling out the possibility that they were edited.

Koldo is not an "undercover agent"

• The judge states that "the vague and generic challenge to the authenticity of the recordings, however legitimate it may be, lacks even the slightest consistency." Thus, he rules out the possibility that they are a "manipulation" by Koldo García, especially since, he says, the audio recordings also incriminate him. He also rejects the possibility that García could be an undercover agent: "There is no evidence that would allow us to consider, as a hypothesis with even the slightest consistency, that Koldo García was an undercover agent or provocateur, a position he would have held for years, having established an intense relationship with Santos Cerdán, and even before the government's progress had taken place."
• The judge also points to Cerdán's connection to the company Servinabar and the document in which he was transferred part of the ownership of the company, which received the contracts.
• Finally, Leopoldo Puente argues that Cerdán sent names to appoint positions in the Ministry of Transport, such as the Director General of Highways, Javier Herrero Lizano, who later played an active role in public works bidding. He also cites several messages in which the suspect expressed interest in various public works projects.