MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The judge of the National High Court (AN) who is investigating the alleged illegal assignments that BBVA would have made to the now-retired Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo has postponed for the second time the statement as accused of the former president of the banking entity Francisco González, now indicating it for December 15 .
In an ordering procedure, to which Europe has had access, the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, led by Manuel García Castellón, postponed González’s appearance for the second time. Initially, it was set for November 2, but it was changed to the 29th due to scheduling problems for the defense. And now it has been delayed again, this time at the request of Villarejo.
It was last July when González asked to give a statement, despite the fact that he already appeared on November 18, 2019, arguing that the investigations were secret then and it is now that he has been able to learn of everything investigated.
The defense explained that, although in the statement made almost three years ago he answered the questions of the judge and the prosecutor, despite the fact that the case was secret -due to “his strong commitment to collaborate with the Justice”-, in At this time, after having made progress in the investigations, it was in the interest of the client’s right to testify again.
Legal sources close to González then indicated that the request to testify voluntarily responded to the attitude that the former president of BBVA has “always” had of “full collaboration with the Justice”, in order that “any doubt about the correct performance of the bank under his presidency”.
González is being investigated for alleged crimes of bribery and disclosure of secrets. The Criminal Chamber lifted its accusation for unfair administration, upholding the appeal of the former president of BBVA against the judge’s decision to follow the criteria of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which saw this possible illicit in the alleged use of the bank to obtain information about a farm that he was interested in buying privately.
The citation lines up this separate piece of the ‘Villarejo case’, number 9, towards the final stretch, since the sources consulted by Europa Press point out that the intention of the investigators is that González’s be the last statement before putting an end to the instruction phase.
Meanwhile, the instructor will put the magnifying glass on the “new facts” that led him to prolong his investigations, related to the hiring of ANBYCOL, the company of former police officer Antonio Bonilla, identified by the judicial investigation as one of Villarejo’s collaborators, reason for which he has sat on the defendant’s bench in the first trial of the commissioner for his private business.
These “new facts” have come to swell a case where García Castellón examines BBVA’s contracts with the Villarejo business group, CENYT, for different projects –presumably illegal– at least between 2004 and 2017, some jobs for which the entity would have paid the commissioner more than 10 million euros.
