Montoro designed a Treasury to his liking with a transfer of positions from the Economic Team
Upon his arrival in government under Mariano Rajoy in 2011, Cristóbal Montoro designed a Ministry of Finance that ensured that no detail of the decisions made there would be leaked, nor would he encounter any opposition to his directives and orders. A judge in Tarragona is investigating whether the then minister manipulated legislative reforms to favor certain companies with tax breaks, clients of the firm he founded, Equipo Económico.
The investigators' thesis is that Montoro "appointed among his senior officials individuals closely linked to the Economic Team office, which would ensure that the drafting and processing of the texts, draft laws, and draft regulations were drafted 'at the request' of the investigated companies, after those companies agreed to pay for them."
This is confirmed in a report by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), to which La Vanguardia has had access. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Spanish police) have conducted this investigation for seven years, led by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and supported by the Civil Guard. According to this account, Montoro holds a "core role" in the organization under investigation, as he is the "authority who allegedly ensures a certain profit for the Economic Team." He allegedly did this, according to the evidence they have, "abusing his powers, including the right to initiate legislation within his Ministry." These powers, according to investigators, "allowed the network to offer companies from different sectors reforms that benefited their economic interests, to the detriment of the sector."
Read also This is how the reform was developed between the Treasury, the Economic Team and the gas companies, email to email. Carlota Guindal, Joaquín Vera
To ensure these reforms were implemented, Montoro had to design a Ministry for his own benefit, always in accordance with the views of the police and the judiciary. One of the key appointments made at that time was Pilar Platero as Undersecretary of Finance and Public Administration. She joined the ministry at the time the draft laws affecting tax reductions for gas companies were being processed, after several of them had hired the Economic Team.
According to the investigation, Platero "not only juggled her status as a partner in the Economic Team firm for a few days, but also assumed the leadership of the Ministry's body that would issue the only mandatory report at that stage and pilot legal reforms within the scope of the Ministry of Finance." The Mossos d'Esquadra report specifies that she was a partner at EE between 2009 and 2012 and "appears to have juggled both positions for approximately a month."
According to the Mossos investigation Companies seeking ad hoc reforms had to first go through EEThe court case reveals that companies seeking ad hoc legislative reforms had to first go through EE, which submitted reports to the Ministry for the modification of regulations. However, investigators discovered that the technical reports were not prepared by this firm but were actually prepared by another consulting firm, E&Y, for a price ten times lower. It turns out that Montoro hired Alberto García Varela as Director General of Taxes. "It so happens that in September 2018, he became a partner at E&Y, the consulting firm involved in the events under investigation." Furthermore, the Mossos d'Esquadra point out that between January and February 2019, he was Minister of Finance, Industry, and Energy of the Andalusian Regional Government, at the proposal of the PP-A (People's Party), and returned to E&Y in May 2019.
This symbiosis between the Treasury and the office Montoro set up was also evident in his Secretary of State, Miguel Ferré. As deputy minister at the Ministry, he refused to extend the 85% exemption from the electricity tax to other sectors, such as the manufacturing and separation of gases from air. However, "his refusal would change radically a few months later, following the intervention of EE, when the gas companies agreed to pay the price demanded by the consultancy firm."
The Mossos d'Esquadra make a connection: Ferré has received remuneration not only from EE, but also from the alleged instrumental company Tutman Fiscalía SL, a company owned by Manuel de Vicente Tutor, one of EE's main partners. The Tax Technicians' Union Gestha already warned in 2017 that large private firms such as EE organized a kind of forums, courses or conferences for which they hired senior tax officials "for 500 euros an hour."
Read alsoNext link: One of the interlocutors between the EE office and the gas companies who appears in the emails seized in the case is the consulting firm's secretary, "closely linked to Cristóbal Montoro as she was part of the staff assigned to the State Secretariat for the Economy" in 1997, when he was the head of the firm.
"The appointments made by Montoro would ensure that the oversight of the bodies with decisive powers in the processing of the reference regulations would remain linked to the firm. That is, it could be inferred that this firm would integrate its partners and their families into the governing bodies of the Ministry of Finance."
Sibling pairs Felipe and Ricardo Martínez Rico and Rogelio and Santiago Menéndez: all chargedTwo pairs of brothers formed part of Montoro's inner circle. The minister appointed Felipe Martínez Rico as his trusted man—chief of staff—who was later promoted to Undersecretary of Finance and Public Administration in 2016. He not only intervened in the reforms in favor of the gas companies but also acted as the liaison between the Tax Agency and the minister, providing him with classified and confidential information about secret court cases or data on tax audits of political adversaries, journalists, and celebrities.
It so happens that he is the brother of Ricardo Martínez Rico, executive president of Equipo Económico, who in turn served as Secretary of State for Budgets under Montoro in José María Aznar's government. Not only that, the Mossos d'Esquadra have detected that he has received compensation "from the company allegedly linked to that brother, Econodos SL."
The other brothers are Rogelio and Santiago Menéndez. The former was appointed advisor to the minister's cabinet between 2013 and 2015, in parallel with the appointment of his brother Santiago Menéndez as director of the Tax Agency. Numerous emails from the latter to both the minister and his chief of staff appear, providing advance reports on judicial assistance that have not yet been submitted to the judge, such as in the case of the PP's secret slush fund, or information on tax audits, such as those of former minister Rodrigo Rato, former Madrid president Esperanza Aguirre, tennis player Rafa Nadal, and Baroness Thyssen, among others.
Regarding Rogelio Menéndez, the Mossos d'Esquadra explain that, in his capacity as an advisor, "he allegedly played a leading role in the events under investigation." Furthermore, a photograph appears of him as one of the attendees at the meeting between Minister Montoro and the representative of the gas association AFGIM. All of them are now under investigation by the head of Tarragona's Investigative Court No. 2 for the alleged crimes of bribery, fraud against the public administration, malfeasance, influence peddling, prohibited negotiations, business corruption, and document falsification.
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