Ábalos and Koldo testify in the Supreme Court following the latest findings of the UCO

Former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and his closest advisor, Koldo García, return to the Supreme Court today following the latest evidence gathered by the Civil Guard. These findings implicate them in alleged irregular public works contracts and the alleged distribution of bribes that has implicated former PSOE leader Santos Cerdán, who was named as a suspect on June 30.

This will be their second appearance before Judge Leopoldo Puente. Both appeared months ago, when the case essentially revolved around the potential collection of commissions related to mask contracts during the pandemic.

Now, the UCO believes that Ábalos and Koldo acted on behalf of the construction companies Acciona, LIC, and OPR to "allegedly fraudulently obtain public works contracts" and that this resulted in financial compensation. According to the Civil Guard, they received €620,000 from Acciona, which was allegedly managed by Santos Cerdán.

The Supreme Court judge sees evidence of organized crime and bribery in the case. Both Ábalos and Koldo are prohibited from leaving the country and must appear in court every two weeks. After their appearances this Monday, it is possible that the judge will agree to increase these precautionary measures.

Last Thursday, the former minister claimed to be "the idiot in all this" in an interview on Cadena SER and indicated that it was Cerdán and Koldo who "pressured him to try to influence the hiring." While he assured that he will testify before the judge, yesterday TVE reported that Koldo García was considering appearing, but not testifying.

Last week, the UCO raided José Luis Ábalos's home and seized 34 devices, including a hard drive. On Friday, officers from this unit went to Ferraz to clone the emails of Santos Cerdán and Ábalos, and also visited the headquarters of Adif and the General Directorate of Highways.