The judge plans to call his superiors to testify after the request of the Prosecutor’s Office
MADRID, 20 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
José López, the former BBVA employee who prepared the entity’s reports in response to SEPBLAC’s information requirements, assured this Thursday before the judge of the ‘Villarejo case’ that he did not see any irregularities in the hiring of the now-retired commissioner by the bank.
Legal sources have explained to Europa Press that in his testimony as a witness before the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, López has indicated that the services for which the entity requested the services of CENYT –the business group of Villarejo– they were normal. The company, according to his testimony, would be in charge of investigating operations abroad.
López, who has responded to questions from the Prosecutor’s Office, has given details on the information he provided to the Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Monetary Offenses in relation to CENYT.
His first management, specifically, allowed him to verify that Villarejo was listed as the company’s representative, being the owner legally identified, as required by the law on the prevention of money laundering.
After carrying out the pertinent investigation and verifying that CENYT invoiced with the bank, the worker called the Purchasing department, which explained that the work carried out by CENYT depended directly on Security.
López, who would not have noticed any anomaly, informed Security that CENYT did not have an account with the entity, but rather charged as a company that worked directly for the bank for the provision of apparently normal services.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has announced in the statement that it will ask Judge García Castellón to call López’s hierarchical superiors to testify. The sources consulted have confirmed that the magistrate considers this diligence pertinent and will agree to summon him in the near future.
This same Thursday, the BBVA employee Óscar Santos was scheduled to testify before the magistrate as a defendant, but finally he has accepted his right not to testify.
The magistrate also summoned to declare this Wednesday three agents of the National Police Corps as being investigated. However, two of them did not attend the call and the rest chose not to testify.
In this piece of the macro-cause on Villarejo, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 puts the magnifying glass on BBVA’s contracts with CENYT signed at least between 2004 and 2017 and for which the entity would have paid the former police officer more than 10 million euros.
These statements constitute the last round before the judge ends the investigation of this separate piece number 9, according to the legal sources consulted by Europa Press.
That of former BBVA president Francisco González — who requested to appear again — is expected to be the last statement. Initially scheduled for November 2, it was postponed to the 29th of that same month due to scheduling problems in his defense.
González is being investigated by the AN for alleged crimes of bribery and disclosure of secrets. The Criminal Chamber lifted his accusation for unfair administration by estimating his appeal by 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 the banker was interested in buying privately.
