“Ángel knows that he has taken €600,000 from us in that work and he should help us, but you know,” the businessman told Koldo.
MADRID, 20 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard maintains that the former advisor of José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García, tried to meet with the current president of ADIF, Ángel Contreras, because the businessman Daniel Fernández asked him to exercise “his influence for the awarding of a new contract linked” to one previously awarded by the public entity.
The investigators do not specify in their report whether the former advisor to Ábalos and Contreras finally had a meeting. Koldo García was arrested on February 20, and he was released on the 22nd after refusing to testify before Judge Ismael Moreno.
This is clear from a report, collected by Europa Press, in which investigators explain that Koldo “would have tried to meet with who could be Ángel Contreras” on February 21, 2024. That same day, Koldo met with Antonio Fernández, the businessman’s brother, to supposedly discuss the details of the public award of an emergency contract.
According to the telephone interventions, Koldo “had proposed holding a meeting” with the current president of Adif on February 16, 2024. “Very good marquis, I am in Madrid, I know it will be difficult to see you but if you can tell me or have lunch or dinner or without not 5 m. But if it is not possible, tell me one day next week if you can please!!!”, wrote Ábalos’s former advisor.
Faced with this proposal, the agents point out, the president of ADIF responded: “Today it is impossible for me, next week what day is better for you?” Next, in another message, the president of Adif, always according to the UCO, informed him: “I only have time on Wednesday 10:15-11:00. How do you see it?” “Perfect,” Koldo replied.
For the agents, “the importance of this meeting lies in the fact that Ángel is currently the president of ADIF and, at the time of the events that give rise” to the case being investigated in the National Court, “he was the general director of Conservation and Maintenance of ADIF, remembering that ADIF awarded the second contract to Management Solutions for a value of 12,500,000 euros”.
On the other hand, the report points out, “this entity was the awarder of the public works contract that was the subject of the messages” from businessman Daniel Fernández – administrator of Public Works and Irrigation -, “and the latter mentioned in the message sent to Koldo requesting the exercise of its influence for the award of a new contract linked to the one already awarded by ADIF”.
The award, according to the agents, would be related to the execution of the works of the project to treat infrastructure elements of a section between Monforte and Lugo of line 800. “This contract was awarded on July 29, 2021 to the UTE MONFORTE 379 (U16792319) which is made up of the companies Obras Públicas y Regadíos SA (50%) and ASCH Infraestructuras SA (50%). This point reinforces that Daniel’s messages refer to this file,” they indicate.
The businessman himself would have requested “the exercise of Koldo’s influence so that an alleged emergency contract resulting from the slippage that occurred in the execution of that public works contract be awarded to Public Works and Irrigation (OPR),” administered by Daniel Fernández.
“There is a landslide and an emergency of considerable amount is going to be declared, more than 1.5 million euros. The reasonable thing is for the successful bidder to do it, but since it is a UTE, one of the companies has to sign the contract and we prefer it to be OPR,” said Daniel Fernández himself.
It was in that context when he indicated: “We have to be careful because the maintenance people who are Copase Cosvensa could sneak in (*) Ángel – the current president of ADIF – knows that he has taken €600,000 from us in that work and he must help us but you already know”.
Additionally, the researchers indicate, the fact that “both meetings – those between Koldo and Ángel and that between Koldo and Antonio – took place on the same day is notable after the preliminary analysis of the WhatsApp conversation that Koldo had with Antonio on February 17, 2024, when the first” of those meetings was already confirmed.
“Is Wednesday still on? In case there is any news?” Antonio asked, to which Koldo responded: “Yes, yes.” The next day, Antonio asked him what time they would meet that Wednesday. Ábalos’ former advisor responded with the phrase “it would not be before”, and sent a second message that appears deleted.
At the end of that conversation, Koldo added: “I’ll throw this one out now, huh.” The agents point out the “possibility that the investigated party got rid of the mobile terminal with which he was communicating, a security measure that he could be taking due to the information received that he was being investigated.”
The agents, given that message, proceeded on February 20 to seize the telephone terminal of the aforementioned Antonio Fernández.
