The alleged corruption plot of the Koldo case spread its tentacles to the other side of the Atlantic. A report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard incorporated into the summary in which the alleged fraudulent sale of masks to various administration bodies is investigated details that businessman Víctor de Aldama used his “ability to influence” over Koldo García, former advisor to former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, to do business in the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2020, during the worst of the covid-19 pandemic.
The police document includes several WhatsApp conversations between Aldama and García, in which the former urges him in July 2020 to have the minister call the president of the Caribbean country (a few days before elections had been held and Luis Abinader had been elected) to be able to do business: “Call (sic) the fucking president of the DR, you have a person there who, without knowing you at all, has given everything and more.” The authors of the report recall that Aldama had been paying Ábalos’s former advisor 10,000 euros in cash since at least October 2019, “a kind of payroll that allowed the request of favors” such as the one the management used to raid his businesses in the Dominican Republic.
The UCO details that the exchange of messages between the two to do business in the Caribbean country began on July 8 of that year, when Aldama sent García the telephone number of the president of the Dominican Republic. “Luis (Abinader), president of the RD, is yours directly. Everyone has a politician and this is the staff,” warns the businessman, who then asks him to notify him when the minister calls a foreign leader: “When the boss is going to call, I need to know within an hour or so, please.” Ábalos’s then right-hand man asks him how to make the call and if it wouldn’t be better for him to be present and even make it from his cell phone. “I prefer you to be there,” García insists. However, Aldama rules out that option because he will be out of Madrid for several days, but in order not to delay communication – “things get cold, you know” – he raises the possibility of a three-way call.
The next day, Aldama asks García again about Ábalos’ call to Abinader – “by the way, when is the (sic) president of the RD going to be called?” – but he asks for patience: “I’m working on it. Wait a little, please.” The UCO report highlights that, as this communication between the minister and the Dominican president-elect still does not occur, the businessman writes again 24 hours later to the former advisor, already in an imperative tone. Finally, on July 14, after Aldama asked again if the minister had called Abinader, García confirmed that he had.
The police document details that “a few months after Víctor de Aldama’s request to Koldo to speak at a ministerial level with the president of the Dominican Republic, Ignacio Díaz (the businessman’s partner) contacted the aforementioned president directly to introduce himself” and offer his services to obtain anti-covid material after clarifying that his contact was given to him by Ábalos’ right hand. “Finally, a contractual relationship (of the Aldama companies) with the Dominican Republic was produced,” emphasizes the Civil Guard.
Dominican Republic denies having any connection with the plot
The Dominican Government has denied any type of relationship with the plot. “From August 16, 2020 to date, the Dominican Government has not signed contracts, nor has it carried out purchasing processes or acquisitions of goods and services with any of the companies mentioned in said case,” the Communication Directorate of the Executive of the Caribbean republic reported this Friday night in a statement.
“The present administration does not maintain commercial ties or contractual relations with the aforementioned entities,” continues the Executive, who also denies that there has been “any communication with the President of the Republic, as someone commented in the midst of the development of the aforementioned process that is being elucidated in Madrid.”
