MADRID, 1 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former advisor to former minister José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García, has assured that he offered the company Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a la Empresa SL, investigated for alleged bribes in pandemic contracts, to four ministries and five autonomous communities to obtain masks, noting that he spoke directly on this matter with the minister and former president of the Canary Islands Ángel Víctor Torres and Francina Armengol’s team when she governed the Balearic Islands.
In an interview given to the newspaper ‘El Mundo’, which has been collected by Europa Press, Koldo explained that he was commissioned by Ábalos himself to help “in every way possible” in 2020, the most critical year in the pandemic. Thus, he has reported that due to his inexperience in this area, he requested quotes for masks and accepted suggestions “from all over the world”, and then passed them on to the Ministry of Transport.
In his story, he said that he contacted the company Soluciones de Gestión that gave him a “certain security” because, as he stated, it was “serious” and they brought “two planes” to Spain that were charged when they landed.
“What do they say that I did it was illegal? I acted with the sole intention of helping,” defended Koldo, who also points out that he offered the company now investigated by Justice to the communities of Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, and the Canary Islands. , Balearic Islands or La Rioja and four other ministries because, in his opinion, it worked well and there were no “deceptions or scams.”
Specifically, regarding the Balearic Islands, he has stated that it was the PSOE itself that referred him to the team of the former president of the community and current president of Congress, Francina Armengol, and that the latter provided him with a contact that he made available to Management Solutions.
Regarding contacts with the Canary Islands Government of Ángel Víctor Torres, Koldo has admitted that he spoke with the Minister of Territorial Policy himself and with several of his main collaborators.
He has defended the former Minister of Transport – “Involving Ábalos in all this is sons of bitches, he said and then also asking for forgiveness for the damage caused -, emphasizing that he will never deny the PSOE and that he helped the current president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in his race to lead the party. “If you want to knock him down, it is impossible… for now,” he warned.
In this context, Koldo has denied any type of bribery or commission collection, insisting that neither he nor Ábalos “nor anyone from the Ministry” charged “a penny.” “I have been earning 7,000 euros a month for years, I received compensation of 45,000 euros and the cash that the Civil Guard says are commissions is money that I took out of my accounts and kept in my house,” he said.
Thus, the minister’s former advisor has reiterated that “due to the issue of masks” he will not be sentenced. “For other things, it could be,” he added, while revealing that he had known for seven months that the Civil Guard was following him although he did not receive “any tip” but instead saw them “mounting an operation” and recorded it on video.
Asked about his role accompanying Ábalos to the Madrid airport so that the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, did not set foot on Spanish soil, Koldo pointed out that he does not want to talk about that night “even dead”, once again defending the former PSOE deputy. “Ábalos did what he had to do to save many Spanish companies in Venezuela and he did not keep any suitcase or do anything illegal,” he stressed, and later assured that he saw with his own eyes how “six large suitcases” were unloaded from the plane. and six small ones that later got back on.”
