The investigation into Cristóbal Montoro has reached the courts in Tarragona. A 249-page report from the Tax Agency, to which ARA has had access, details the operation through which gas companies attempted to conceal payments made to Equipo Económico, the firm founded by Montoro, who was Minister of Finance at the time, in exchange for the tax on economic activities. They established "three initial layers." First, the total agreed-upon amount was divided among different payers. Then, the amount corresponding to each company was broken down into "small sums" to make it more difficult to trace. Finally, the payment was made into at least "two different bank accounts." Furthermore, the payments were made with a deferral under the formal guise of a "success bonus" to distance them from their true origin. However, the payments "coincided temporally" with the progress of the legislative changes.

The Spanish elections had just taken place, and the People's Party (PP) was about to return to the Moncloa Palace when Cristóbal Montoro's future chief of staff, Felipe Martínez Rico, arranged a meeting with mid-level officials in the Catalan government. At the time, Artur Mas was president—he had been in the Palau for just over a year, and the economic crisis was already rampant—and Martínez Rico leveraged his contacts within the Catalan government's economic team to offer them the services of Equipo Económico (EE). According to various sources consulted by ARA, the offer didn't specify a specific service, but the conversation revealed that hiring the firm founded by Montoro would improve relations with the future PP government. Martínez Rico, who wore the Economic Team hat during that meeting, already knew he would end up in the Treasury and the minister's team, which it was also clear at that point would be Montoro. The Economy Department, headed at the time by Minister Andreu Mas-Colell, declined to hire him.

The case that affects the alleged corruption of former Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro has taken another turn. The Tarragona judge investigating the plot has made it clear in several rulings, which were released this Thursday, that he sees no crime in Montoro, now charged with multiple offenses, receiving emails from his team containing tax information of politicians from different parties, including his opponents. Thus, he denies the appearance of former PP minister Rodrigo Rato and former Podemos leader Juan Carlos Monedero as injured parties, because he sees no illegality in the theft of their data, as they were "fully authorized" and "legitimate" to receive it, according to the judge. On the other hand, he has accepted the appearance of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), the only one he has validated, while he has rejected that of a journalist.