Two very different styles but the same mission: save the accused. Víctor Ábalos and Joseba García were not called to be the protagonists of the day (and they have not been), but they have had their share of screen time. Sitting on a chair, in front of the court of seven judges that is trying their father and brother for the alleged corruption surrounding the purchase of masks in the middle of the pandemic, they have tried to convince their lordships that they were not their front men. “I am not the custodian of anyone’s money,” the first-born son of former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos said angrily.
The witness has opted for a serious attitude, that of someone speaking in the Plenary Hall of the Supreme Court, lined in blood red. Perhaps he was tired from having to get up at 3 in the morning to go directly from Valencia, where he lives. And he almost missed the train near Cuenca, according to what he said. with that laughedwho accompanied dark, almost mourning clothing, has reported that all his income came from his work as a consultant, mainly in Colombia, where he advised on the internationalization of companies until the outbreak of the crisis. Koldo case and its turnover fell “overnight.” Since then – he has regretted – he has even had to do some sets to pay the mortgage and his father’s commissary expenses.
Víctor Ábalos has explained that the former socialist leader served as head of the family, for himself and his other four children, until the divorce took its toll on him. It left him in a delicate financial situation that forced his first-born son to lend him a hand. Thus, he has stated that he had to take out a personal loan of more than 20,000 euros to leave them to his father.
The generosity of Ábalos’ son would also have extended to Koldo García. The accusations have reproduced some of the WhatsApp messages that were exchanged, considering that they clearly reflect that money was exchanged. Víctor Ábalos, however, has denied the majority and has replied that, when García lost his job at the Ministry of Transportation, he wanted to help the couple by giving his wife a job. He only managed to collect two payslips of about 900 euros because the arrests began.
Nor did they use code language to refer to the transfer of cash. Ábalos’s son has maintained that, when they talked about “coffee” they were not referring to money. “Koldo really likes coffee.” And, like many other people, he was brought from Colombia, he has justified.
Travels for love, the Volkswagen scam and a motorcycle club
After him, Joseba, García’s brother who is accused in the branch of the Koldo case which is being investigated in the National Court. He blamed that, and his hearing problems, for not answering either the prosecutor or the PP lawyer, who represents the popular accusations. “I would like to, but I follow my lawyer’s advice,” he has repeated again and again in a friendly attitude that at times has desperate the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Alejandro Luzón.
Yes, he has responded to his lawyer and that of his brother, Leticia de la Hoz, and to Ábalos’ lawyer, Marino Turiel. In that same affable, casual tone, he has offered an explanation for each of the many indications that indicate that he was in charge of collecting and moving the money with which the alleged plot paid for the political favors of his brother and his boss.
He has started by revealing his love story with his current partner. If he traveled to the Dominican Republic twice at the end of 2021, it was not to pick up two envelopes with 10,000 euros each (because Aldama and his partners’ cash had run out in Spain). No, that is the version of the researchers, he defended. It was to do business – explore the profitability of pitaya and tobacco plantations – and, in the process, meet a woman. The first was bad, but the second was impeccable. They are still together, he revealed.
Joseba García has continued with the story of her time at Ineco, a public company dependent on the Ministry of Transport in which she worked and from which she left when Ábalos left office. With this he has tried to neutralize suspicions about the hiring of Jéssica Rodríguez, then the minister’s partner. Researchers attribute his entry into Ineco to the influence of Ábalos and the efforts of the García brothers. She admitted that she was paid, but never worked. “I didn’t know if he worked a lot or a little. I was not his superior,” Joseba García concluded. According to him, he met her there and, although they did not become friends, they were “good coworkers.” Therefore, he helped her fill out the work reports, took care of the cat and even paid her rent.
He doesn’t have such good memories of Aldama because he sold him a Volkswagen Passat that he had to get rid of “like scrap metal.” “One of the worst purchases I have made in my life.” For that reason, and for that reason alone, they met up to eight times and talked about money, he has maintained. Along the same lines, he has attributed the cash that the Civil Guard found in his house, more than 5,000 euros, to his motorcycle club. And, if he handled a certain amount of money, it is because he earned more than 70,000 euros.
