Koldo García had his first court appearance this Thursday after the Supreme Court reserved judgment in the trial against the alleged ringleaders of the mask scheme: former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, his former ministerial advisor, and businessman Víctor de Aldama. The judge of the National Court, Ismael Moreno, who is handling the rest of the case (in which, among others, former senior Transport officials, businessmen, and García’s brother and ex-wife are accused), had summoned him for questioning about his involvement in the purchase of masks during the covid-19 pandemic by the governments of the Balearic Islands and Canary Islands from the company Soluciones de Gestión, linked to Aldama, but the advisor invoked his right to remain silent because his defense has appealed the summons as an investigated party, considering that this case has already been judged in the hearing held at the Supreme Court.
García was transferred to the National Court from Soto del Real prison (Madrid), where he has been in provisional detention alongside Ábalos since last November. The advisor was before Judge Moreno for only a few minutes. According to his lawyer, Leticia de la Hoz, upon leaving, the fact that the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the popular prosecution included in their final report of the Supreme Court trial the purchase of masks for the Balearic and Canary Islands confirms their theory that García has already been tried for those contracts and cannot be tried again. “Furthermore, it was subject to evidence because we requested the testimony of Francina Armengol [former president of the Balearic Islands] and Ángel Víctor Torres [former president of the Canary Islands] and, indeed, it was carried out,” the lawyer recalled.
De la Hoz stated that if the National Court rejects their appeal, she will request the voluntary statement of the former advisor, who spoke before the judge to again demand the return of all mobile phones that the Civil Guard seized during the search of his home in February 2024. According to his lawyer, Koldo has complained that he cannot access those devices to defend himself against the allegations, while some media outlets are publishing messages extracted from his phones referring to his private life. García’s lawyer has repeatedly demanded the return of the devices both at the National Court and the Supreme Court and, according to De la Hoz, will do so again in the coming days.
Judge Moreno summoned the former advisor after the Civil Guard sent him a report on the contracts of the scheme with the Balearic government. According to this document, the Health Service of the Balearic Islands and the company Soluciones de Gestión, linked to Aldama, agreed on the purchase of masks on April 26, 2020, 24 hours after García had contacted the former president of the Balearic Islands and current president of the Congress of Deputies to introduce himself.
Armengol supposedly referred him to the management director of the Balearic Health Institute, Manuel Palomino, who wrote to Ábalos’s advisor to inquire about the masks that García had allegedly offered to the president. Minutes later, Aldama sent the contact of the Balearic official to Iñigo Rotaeche, executive of Soluciones de Gestión. The masks arrived that same day because a batch already en route to the Ministry of Transport was used and, according to the UCO, was diverted to the islands with the mediation of the then minister’s advisor. But the emergency contract was not published until May 12.
The conversations included in the report that the UCO delivered to the National Court judge show how Ábalos’s then advisor extended his enormous influence beyond the ministry to get other administrations to buy masks from Soluciones de Gestión, from whose sales, allegedly, both he and the then minister received kickbacks. This is one of the main theses of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which considers that the contracting of masks during the worst days of the covid-19 pandemic with the Ministry of Transport facilitated Aldama’s company later being awarded other similar contracts in other administrations and that they took advantage of their contacts to learn the needs of each and thus anticipate the bidding processes.
The Civil Guard suspects that these contracts constitute “part of the reason for the monthly cash payment of 10,000 euros” that Aldama allegedly paid to Koldo García between 2019 and 2022, “in a kind of payroll that allowed the request of favors.” During the trial held at the Supreme Court, focused on the purchase of masks by Puertos del Estado and Adif, the former ministerial advisor denied those payments and said he did not know that Aldama was associated with Soluciones de Gestión and that the choice of that company as the supplier of masks was made by the technicians. García admitted that the businessman got involved using his contacts to speed up the arrival of medical supplies to Spain, but said he believed he did so out of friendship.
However, Anti-Corruption considers that the contracting of masks during the worst days of the covid-19 pandemic with the Ministry of Transport facilitated Aldama’s company later being awarded other similar contracts in other administrations (Ministry of the Interior, Canary Islands, and Balearic Islands) and that they took advantage of their contacts to learn the needs of each and thus anticipate the bidding processes.
In the report on contracts with the Canary Islands, delivered by the UCO last November, the Civil Guard pointed out that the former island president and current Minister of Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres met with Aldama to discuss the payment for the masks sold to that community. Just as has happened now with the document on the Balearic Islands, Judge Moreno summoned Koldo García to testify about his participation in that purchase, but the advisor invoked his right to remain silent.
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