The investigations launched in the Ministry of the Interior during the Jorge Fernández Díaz era extended to people beyond those directly politically linked to the process. An alleged report from the Police Internal Affairs Unit, which was in the ministry and to which La Vanguardia and eldiario.es have had access, shows that the list had a broader radius.
The document, which is reproduced on this page, is an “investigation proposal based on information received” that includes, among other people, the then chief prosecutor of Catalonia, Martín Rodríguez Sol, or the businesswoman Sol Daurella, president and main shareholder of the Coca Cola bottling company, member of the third generation of the family saga and holder of one of the main Spanish economic assets.
The list concludes with a disturbing note: “the information received appears mostly on the internet and has not been confirmed so far.” A true confession of the prospective nature of the investigations, that is, the objective of searching for incriminating evidence without previously existing elements to do so.
Rodríguez Sol, from the conservative sector, was appointed Superior Prosecutor of Catalonia in July 2012 and presented his resignation in March 2013. During his brief period at the head of the public ministry he had two relevant clashes with the Government, enough to explain that his mandate in Catalunya was so short.
The first, when Rodríguez Sol opened proceedings against El Mundo for the publication on November 17, 2012, a week before the Catalan elections, of a false report about accounts of Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
The Government felt bad about this action against an operation that was actually instigated by it. A subsequent investigation by the then head of the Police Internal Services Unit, Marcelino Martín Blas, concluded by certifying his absolute falsehood. Fernandéz Díaz reported this in Congress, omitting that he had received documents from the police leadership, mentioning those ghost accounts.
The prosecutor's second clash with the Government of Mariano Rajoy occurred in the following March, when, even though he ruled out that legality supported a referendum on the independence of Catalonia, he was in favor of finding a formula that would allow citizens to be consulted: “ The people need to be given the opportunity to express what they want; in general to any town.” In a climate of media pressure in Madrid in favor of his dismissal, the State Attorney General, Eduardo Torres-Dulce, immediately announced that he was opening a dismissal file against him. Rodríguez Sol anticipated his resignation.
In the alleged report from the Internal Services Unit that was released today, it is explained that the investigation seeks “links between the Superior Prosecutor and the political party Unió Democràtica de Catalunya (UDC) – the party that formed a coalition with the CDC of Pujol – and the commissions managed by the lawyers of the aforementioned party.” Rodríguez Sol would end up running as a UDC candidate in the 2015 Catalan elections, the last before the liquidation of that historic Christian Democratic party.
In the case of the businesswoman and president of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, her inclusion on the list refers to “possible irregularities and undeclared positions regarding the assets of Carles Vilarrubí and his wife Sol Daurella.”
The first is an executive and businessman who in the past was linked to the Catalan administration and to President Pujol himself, in his capacity as director of Catalunya Radio. In 1992 he was appointed CEO of the company in charge of building the Port Aventura amusement park, which had the support of the Generalitat. Shortly after landing in the company, Javier de la Rosa, owner of the firm, demanded that he divert a loan of 1,000 million pesetas for the park guaranteed by the Parliament to his other companies. Vilarrubí refused, resigned that same night before a notary and reported what happened to the then president Pujol.
In reaction, De la Rosa subjected him to surveillance, espionage and control. Years later, at the beginning of the dirty war against the independence leaders, De la Rosa explained to Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo all kinds of Vilarrubí's alleged operations. And he managed to ensure that, two years later, he ended up being charged in the case opened against the Pujol family after their statement regarding her accounts in Andorra.
The other proposals included in the document are of the same or similar tenor, although in this case they refer to personalities in political life best known to public opinion.
Once again, the imprint of Villarejo and his sources in Catalonia is evident, essentially De la Rosa and Alicia Sánchez Camacho, the then president of the PP in the autonomous community.
The tracing of possible accounts of Jordi Pujol, owned or linked to Félix Millet, the president of the Palau who looted the accounts of the musical institution, in British banks but in Swiss territory, is requested.
Another key name is that of Carles Sumarroca, founding member of the Pujol CDC: “possible irregularities and undeclared positions regarding assets.” Not only him, a good part of his family would end up indicted in one of the cases linked to the 3% of commissions supposedly collected by the nationalist formation, as well as in the aforementioned case of the Pujol family. The Sumarrocas have filed complaints in court, claiming to have been victims of Operation Catalunya.
They also refer to “possible irregularities and undeclared positions regarding the assets of Félix Massot and the Vertix real estate group.” This businessman maintained traditional ties with Pujolist nationalism and had been included in some legal case many years before.
The list also includes the lawyer Antonio Hernández Gil, outgoing dean of the Madrid Bar Association, and "possible irregularities regarding the upcoming elections" are pointed out to replace him. The lawyer Javier Menéndez also appears.
