/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/RZOYMQUOAEQQ7APVOMXDLSL7RY.jpg "An email about the plot to the Secretary General of State Ports: “To avoid problems, please talk to Koldo García” | Spain")
The documentation seized during the arrests of Koldo case sheds more news on the operation of the plot and delves into the accusation of Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, general secretary of the public body Puertos del Estado until this Tuesday, when he was dismissed by Minister Óscar Puente (PSOE) due to lack of trust. The agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard have sent a new report to the judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno, instructor of the case, where they highlight an email sent by one of the detainees to Sánchez Manzanares, which evidences Presumably, Koldo García, former advisor to former Minister José Luis Ábalos, clearly “acted” as an intermediary for the corrupt network and “influenced” the authorities that managed the mask supply awards during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Civil Guard immediately emphasizes: “Koldo would have exerted his influence so that the contract with file number E/019/20 was awarded to Management Solutions for State Ports to supply a quantity of eight million masks.” In addition, according to the agents, in the records of two companies of Víctor de Aldama, president of Zamora CF and also arrested during the operation, a notebook was seized that “contained, among other pages, a screenshot of a conversation [de WhatsApp] between Aldama and ‘Álvaro vice de Puer’, whom they identify as Sánchez Manzanares. Aldama tells his interlocutor: “It has arrived, but talk to K because there are 8 orders and that is what is supposed to be published.”
The agents later identify “K”—whom they describe as a “valid interlocutor” in Transportation—as Koldo García, who allegedly collected irregular commissions from the plot. “The fact that Koldo is identified under the pseudonym K is one of the fundamental milestones for this investigation,” highlights the UCO, which states that messages have been intercepted that would make references “to payments to K.”
Sánchez Manzanares has already testified as a witness before the Civil Guard for the Koldo case. He has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing. However, his dismissal occurred following a report from the Tax Agency became known, which indicates that the president of State Ports, Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena, head of Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, denied in a written response that his department had a relationship some with Víctor de Aldama, a key businessman in the plot, for the contracting of the masks. However, the existing documentation on this matter shows that there were emails from his department sent by Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares to the aforementioned businessman in relation to the controversial contract.
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During the investigation, the Civil Guard detected a telephone call from Koldo García in recent months to Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, without its content being of particular interest to the case. In one of the reports, the Civil Guard states the following: “The fact that one of them is Koldo’s interlocutor is considered of interest for this investigation given the relevance that both have in Puertos del Estado due to the positions they hold in that organism. Additionally, the probability that Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares was the person who called Koldo would be of greater relevance to the events under investigation, given that in his capacity as general secretary he signed one of the documents related to the contract that Puertos del Estado awarded to Soluciones de Management”.
Witness statements
In the same report, the UCO analyzes the statements that, as witnesses, it took between February 21 and 22 from various officials of the Ministries of Transportation and Interior. In their responses, the agents highlight the existence, in some cases, of contradictions, especially with respect to what was stated by Sánchez Manzanares. The Civil Guard points out that the Undersecretary of Transportation, Jesús Manuel Gómez García, assured that the decision that State Ports would be the body in charge of purchasing a first batch of masks was made in a meeting between him, Minister José Luis Ábalos and the technical general secretary of the department, Angélica Martínez, considering that this organization had the “logistical capacity” to achieve it. Gómez García assures that his role in that contract did not go beyond communicating to the president of Ports, Francisco Toledo Lobos, this decision – as he would later also do with Adif, the other body dependent on the ministry that made purchases – and that he did not participate “in “no direct or indirect way in the adjudication of the files” and that he did not know the company Sociedad de Gestión either.
This version contradicts the version given to the UCO by the Secretary General of Ports, Sánchez Manzanares, who assured that it was the Undersecretary and two other officials who informed him that “there was a supplier who had a stock “Eight million masks were available and they wanted to know how the procurement might be carried out.” The senior Ports official added that the information that the only material supplier was Management Solutions was provided to him by Transport and, specifically, by the undersecretary. Sánchez Manzanares’ testimony is corroborated by his superior, the president of State Ports, who assured that his subordinate informed him of the imminent purchase of masks and that she told him that “the ministry was the one who had chosen him.” [al suministrador]”. Toledo Lobo stressed that it was Sánchez Manzanares who from that moment managed the supply contracts and had “direct dialogue” with the ministry.
However, two officials from State Ports assured that they found out regarding the election of Management Solutions by Sánchez Manzanares. One of them was María Belén Caballero, head of the Contracting and Board of Directors department, who reported directly to him. She assured the Civil Guard that it was the secretary general who “put on the table” the name of the company involved in the plot, although she admits that she did not know “who put it on the table for him, because it was the ministry that contract”. The second, Aranzazu de Miguel, head of the Port Contracting and Risk Management Area, stated that it was Sánchez Manzanares who informed her that they had contacted this company and that she would be “in charge of supplying them with the masks.”
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