An Aldama partner, a member of the WhatsApp group of ‘The Four Musketeers’, is also cited to testify as a witness
MADRID, 4 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Claudia Montes, the ex -partner of the former transport minister José Luis Ábalos who was hired at the Logirail public company, is summoned to testify this Tuesday as a witness before the magistrate of the Supreme Court who investigates the former socialist leader for allegedly receiving commissions in exchange for public works or sanitary material contracts during the pandemic.
Montes will be the second ex-partner of Ábalos in appearing before the High Court in the so-called ‘Koldo Case’, since on February 27 he declared another ex-girlfriend of the former minister-Jésica Rodríguez-that was hired in two other public companies, Ineco and Tagsatec. She, in her testimony, acknowledged that although she came to collect the minimum wage in both cases she did not do any work.
Judge Leopoldo Puente, in charge of the investigation, agreed to take a statement to Montes-also known for having won the Miss Asturias contest in 2017-following a report of the Central Operating Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard.
The agents warned that the woman “could have been hired irregularly in the public company Logirail, linked to the Ministry of Transportation” by the “influence” of Ábalos and “with the relevant collaboration” of his then advisor Koldo García, “forming that part of the ‘personal circle’ of the first cited.”
Among the messages intervened in the cause is a message that Ábalos sent to Koldo on October 8, 2019: “Can not hire it in Renfe, Adif or any of their subcontractors?” “I fix it,” Garcia replied.
It didn’t go to the office and she was worried because “the CV was false”
According to the Armed Institute, the then Ministerial Advisor “acted as a transmitter in order for such hiring not only to be carried out, but, once formalized, did not be terminated.”
The report states that in October 2019 Montes sent its CV to Koldo, who sent it to Isaías Taboas, then President of Renfe, the only shareholder of Logirail, “pointing out that the workplace would be Gijón.” According to the agents, Montes got the work and-like Rodríguez-he didn’t go to the office either. In February 2022, the woman told Garcia that they had fired her.
The agents pointed out that the woman “would be determined to take measures to prevent the extinction of their employment contract and did not want their actions to affect Koldo and Ábalos.” In this context, and “given the need to find a new job”, which consists of Montes asked Koldo to give him the version of the CV that allowed him to enter Logirail. “I’m sorry, I have nothing,” replied the exassor.
She seemed worried because “if there is falsehood in the studies that were put on and at work” could incur a crime. However, in a later conversation, Koldo told Ábalos that he was willing to report because “the CV was false”, before what the former minister showed his surprise: “But she falsified it …”.
The UCO points out that Montes also went to Ábalos “in search of a new job”, although at that time they would no longer be together and he was no longer a minister. “Let it stop messed and look for other aids,” Ábalos settled in a message to Koldo.
Before the UCO presented its report, Montes issued a statement in which it assured that “the only personal contact” that had had with Ábalos was “a photograph among colleagues of the PSOE” and that he had achieved the work in Logirail through the Infojobs portal.
Alleged periodic installments of money to Koldo García
This Tuesday is also cited to declare César Moreno, one of the partners of the alleged achievement of the ‘Koldo Case’, the businessman Víctor de Aldama, who is part of the WhatsApp group of ‘The four Musketeers’ that appears in several reports of the UCO.
Although Moreno will go to the supreme witness, he will have to do so accompanied by a lawyer because he is investigated in the branch of the case that is instructed in the national Court. In this procedure, the Prosecutor’s Office defends that ‘the four musketeers’ could have participated in a crime of money laundering.
The magistrate has called to appear to Moreno by considering that he can contribute knowledge about “the alleged periodic deliveries of 10,000 euros per month” by De Aldama-or people who acted for his commission-to Koldo.
The UCO ensures in one of its reports that from Aldama, as a leader of the alleged criminal organization, would have articulated “a complex financial and corporate structure of both national and international scope”, which has experienced “mutations” over time and in which the Moreno himself would be “subordinate”.
However, last November Moreno discounted from the alleged plot in his statement as investigated at the National Court. According to legal sources consulted by Europa Press, the businessman accepted his right to answer only the questions of his defense and limited himself to denying his participation in the investigated mask contracts.
