Ábalos: Suspicions of money laundering hang over the houses purchased by Koldo García and its surroundings | Spain

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the former advisor of former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García, “diverted” money to accounts of people around him and “invested” in the purchase of properties that he put in the name of his closest circle. His objective is to try to “hide” and “whitewash” the alleged bribes that he received for “facilitating” the granting of mask supply contracts in the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. The investigators’ misgivings multiplied as they observed the large amounts of cash they handled and the enormous “increase in assets” that, following the suspicious awards, he and his wife, Patricia Uriz (also detained by the Civil Guard) experienced. ). Among other assets, the public ministry has set its sights on three apartments that the couple acquired on the coastline in Benidorm (Alicante). He paid a total of 444,000 euros for the three, according to the complaint filed at the National Court.

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The General Directorate of the Cadastre explains that the “reference value” is calculated following analyzing “the prices of all real estate sales carried out before a notary public” in an area, “based on the data of each property.” In the cases of homes on urban land, age and state of conservation are taken into account, among other factors. The organization also adds that this “reference value” is below the market value and, to this end, when setting it, “a reduction factor is applied.”

Another of the houses under suspicion is located next to the Benidorm promenade, a few meters from the Copacabana. It is a sixth floor of 81 square meters, also built in 1969, according to the cadastre. The public ministry points out that, in this case, Koldo García himself “formalized” his purchase on September 4, 2020 for 170,000 euros. Its cadastral reference value on January 1, 2022 was 202,303.33 euros (19% more than the amount indicated by the Prosecutor’s Office).

The investigators also focus on a third home acquired in the Alicante municipality, for which the couple paid a total of 115,000 euros on March 10, 2022 and which they put in the name of their daughter (who was two years old at the time). The Prosecutor’s Office emphasizes that this house was paid for without the need to establish a mortgage and following delivering 10% of it in cash (11,500 euros). The rest (103,500 euros) was covered with four checks that were loaded into an account opened in the name of the minor, who had received just two days before the purchase nine transfers that raised the balance above 110,000 euros, enough to cover the expense.

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More accusations in the National Court

The opposition has made it very clear that it is going to exploit the Koldo case to attack the socialist Executive. On Saturday, the deputy secretary of Autonomous and Municipal Policy of the PP, Elías Bendodo, described the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, as the “leader of the criminal organization of the Ábalos plot.” And the PP announced on Monday that the National Court has already admitted his appearance as a popular accusation in the summary led by magistrate Ismael Moreno, which is investigating alleged crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling, money laundering and bribery. “This directly affects Sánchez’s closest circle,” insisted Cuca Gamarra, general secretary of the conservative party, who criticized that the socialists want to use Ábalos as a “firewall.”

Along the same lines, the far-right Vox group announced on Monday that it will be presented as an accusation in the National Court. Its general secretary, Ignacio Garriga, noted: “We are going to go to the end and by all means: judicial and parliamentary.”

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