González Pano assures that the “million” that the UCO says was used to buy the will of Ábalos and public positions went to Aldama
The businesswoman Leonor González Pano has defended before the Supreme Court that the “million” euros that the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard maintains was used to buy the will of Ábalos and public positions was paid to the commission agent Víctor de Aldama.
The investigators, in the framework of another investigation (the one related to an alleged fraud in a hydrocarbons plot), indicated in one of their reports that the “criminal organization” linked to Aldama “allocated” one million euros to “buy the will” of Ábalos and other public officials to “permeate” in the “structures of the Administration” and “obtain influence in exchange for gifts and illicit compensation.” This Thursday, González Pano stated that the “million” in question would go from Claudio Rivas to Aldama. And he has not specified if anyone else benefited.
During the trial, both the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Alejandro Luzón, and the lawyer for the popular accusations led by the PP have read to González Pano several of the woman’s messages that the Civil Guard collected. In one of them, they talked about “the godfather,” who the witness identified as Ábalos. Another read: “The whorekeeper was trying to steal the house and hit the button.” The witness has acknowledged that she was referring to the former minister, but has insisted that they were “private conversations.”
The prosecutor and the popular accusations have also tried to clarify whether the chalet in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) that Have Got Time (the wholesale hydrocarbon marketing company) bought under Aldama’s alleged order was a bribe for Ábalos in exchange for obtaining the Villafuel license. But González Pano has not shed light on the matter.
