The management of masks during the coronavirus pandemic continues under the scrutiny of at least five courts four years after the first state of alarm was declared in March 2020. The National Court, the European Prosecutor’s Office, a court in Las Palmas and three in Madrid investigate alleged irregular commissions for the awarding of contracts, crimes against the Public Treasury by businessmen and embezzlement or crimes against workers by the Administration.
Legal sources consulted specify that The number of investigations may be higher since some causes can be investigated under secrecy.as has happened until now with the so-called ‘Koldo case’, which involves Koldo García, former advisor to former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos.
KOLDO CASE
The National Court is investigating, following an Anti-Corruption complaint, seven people for alleged crimes of criminal organization, money laundering, bribery and influence peddling within the framework of the hiring of masks during the first stage of the pandemic. Among those investigated is the aforementioned Koldo García.
For the Prosecutor’s Office, There is sufficient evidence to conclude that there is “a criminal organization” with “previous agreements” that was dedicated to “obtaining the award” of contracts. The payments would have been obtained by Koldo García “to mediate and obtain” said awards. “Operations to hide these charges, as well as to avoid the traceability of the income obtained as a result of the irregular awards, would also have been carried out.”
According to Anticorruption, between 2020 and 2022 Koldo became the owner of assets whose value could reach a total of 1.5 million euros. «These acquisitions occur just five months after the public awards to Management Solutions took place»Add.
The first contract investigated was awarded by State Ports, with Koldo himself being part of its Governing Council. The amount reached 20 million euros. The second, signed for 12.5 million euros, was awarded by ADIF, an entity dependent on the Ministry of Transport, where Koldo “advised the owner” of the same. The third contract, for 3,479,355 euros, corresponds to the General Subdirectorate of Economic and Asset Management, dependent on the Ministry of the Interior.
Five others appear in the investigation: four with the Canarian Health Service for a total amount of 12.3 million euros and one with the Health Service of the Balearic Islands for 3.7 million. All of them have been sent by Anti-Corruption to the European Prosecutor’s Office upon understanding that they were paid with European funds and which, therefore, are the responsibility of the community body.
In total, eight contracts awarded by different Public Administration entities with a global amount of 51,998,434 euros are under the scrutiny of the National Court.
CRIMES AGAINST TREASURY IN THE CANARY ISLANDS
On the sidelines, the Investigative Court Number 5 of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias investigates the complaint that the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has filed against four businessmen for alleged crimes against the Public Treasury after the sale of medical supplies during the pandemic to Canarian Health Service for an amount of 22.9 million euros.
According to the record, the Public Ministry has taken the case to court after an inspection by the Tax Agency. Three contracts are under suspicion: one awarded in 2020 for 15,891,610 euros; and two in 2021, one for 4,230,000 euros and another for 2,786,000 euros.
“DEFECTIVE” MASKS
For its part, the Investigative Court Number 14 of Madrid is investigating an alleged crime against the workers as a result of the “defective” masks that the Ministry of Health would have distributed during the administration of Salvador Illa in the first stage of the coronavirus pandemic “without respecting the established administrative procedure and without previously verifying its suitability.”
In this case, the judge is pending to take a statement on April 23 at seven people under investigation, two of them former Government officials: a former general director of the Common Portfolio of the National Health and Pharmacy System Service; and who was deputy general director of the SNS Services Portfolio and Compensation Funds in 2020.
Interrogations will take place after December 2022 The Provincial Court of Madrid ordered the court to reopen the investigation that it archived. The judges of the Court agreed with the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), which presented an appeal to continue investigating the events reported in the complaint filed in 2020 before the Supreme Court but which finally ended up in the Madrid court. .
56 INGESA CONTRACTS
In another court of Instruction in Madrid, at number 26, a complaint filed by VOX against various charges and former charges of the Government for alleged crimes of prevarication, embezzlement and fraud in the purchase of medical supplies.
Those from Santiago Abascal maintain that between March and April 2020, 56 contracts were signed by the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA) without any type of advertising and outside of any administrative procedure. In addition, it alludes to the fact that a dozen awards were made to companies of “dubious” existence since only one company name was known.
Since 2022, the head of the court has questioned several former Government officials. According to legal sources, one of them, the director of INGESA, Alfonso María Jiménez, denied the alleged irregularities reported by VOX in the purchase of medical supplies and He also assured that the then Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, was aware of the hiring.
LUCEÑO’S MASKS
In addition, it is worth remembering that in April 2023 the Investigative Court Number 47 of Madrid sent businessmen Luis Medina and Alberto Luceño to trial – within the framework of the so-called ‘mask case’ – for allegedly defrauding the Madrid City Council and falsifying documents to the purchase and sale of medical supplies.
As detailed by the judge in the indictment, Both “concocted a plan to obtain, with the excuse of altruism and help to the City Council, the greatest possible economic benefit.”at the expense of the municipal treasury, consisting of intermediation for the purchase of large quantities of medical supplies, from a Malaysian company.
The judge concluded that Luceño was “the main manager of the preconceived plan” and that Luis Medina, son of former model Naty Abascal, would have taken advantage of “his status as a public and famous figure, for being the son of the Duke of Feria.”
