The National Court confirms the file of CaixaBank and Repsol in the Villarejo case

The Criminal Chamber of the National Court rejects the appeal filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor against the provisional dismissal and archiving of the investigation open to Repsol SA, Caixabank and their presidents Antonio Brufau and Isidro Fainé that judge Manuel García Castellón agreed on 2 June 2022.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
31 January 2023 Tuesday 14:38
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The National Court confirms the file of CaixaBank and Repsol in the Villarejo case

The Criminal Chamber of the National Court rejects the appeal filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor against the provisional dismissal and archiving of the investigation open to Repsol SA, Caixabank and their presidents Antonio Brufau and Isidro Fainé that judge Manuel García Castellón agreed on 2 June 2022.

The Chamber confirms the decision of the examining magistrate who exonerated the two companies as well as their presidents in the investigation carried out within the framework of part 21 of the so-called "Tandem case." This piece investigates the hiring by Repsol and Caixabank of former Police Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo in 2011 through the company Cenyt to carry out an investigation into the agreement reached by Sacyr and Pemex to syndicate their shares in Repsol S.A.

There is no appeal against this order and from now on the proceedings continue as an abbreviated procedure against the people determined by García Castellón and who are former Repsol Security managers Rafael Araujo and Caixabank Miguel Angel Fernández Rancaño, as well as former commissioner Villarejo, his partner Rafael Redondo, the policeman Enrique García Castaño and the deputy director of Support Services of the Repsol Corporate Security department Rafael Girona.

According to the resolution, the court concludes that the contracting of Cenyt's services complied with Repsol's corporate regulations on investments and expenses, purchases and contracting, and authorization of payments in force during the period in which the invoices for them were authorized and paid.

For the magistrates, the hiring of Villarejo complied with the processes established by the regulations regarding the approval of spending and the hiring and payment of the services provided by the entity.

In his opinion, although in practical application it could be improved in some aspect, this would not have changed the fact that Cenyt had been hired. "In other words, it would not have been possible to detect the aspect that the investigated Rafael Araujo, who was in charge of the hiring, says he was unaware of, and that is that at the time of hiring Cenyt, José Manuel Villarejo was an active National Police Corps official and that the contracting of services could obtain confidential data on telephone calls and other communications".

The court also shares the investigator's criteria that the presidents knew the background of the contract to investigate Luis del Rivero in the context of the Sacyr-Pemex shareholder agreement.

García Castellón justified the filing of the case with respect to the presidents of Repsol and Caixabank, understanding that there are no indications or suspicions that the order to contract with Cenyt or Villarejo was known to them, nor that both were informed of their results or of the payment to the provider, which was made, according to the judge, by the respective heads of Security.

The investigation began as a result of the agreement in 2011 that Luis del Rivero, then president of Sacyr Vallehermoso, reached with the Mexican company Pemex to increase its stake in Repsol to almost a third of the share capital without launching a takeover bid.

As a result of these operations, the management services of Caixabank and Repsol jointly articulated different courses of action to avoid said acquisition, including contracting with the Cenyt Group that made the so-called Wine project, according to the investigation.

In his assignment, according to the judge, it was the directors of Security of Repsol and Caixabank who met on several occasions with Villarejo and Redondo from the end of 2011 to the first half of 2021. The contracted investigation services focused on obtaining information about del Rivero, his wife, the head of Security at Sacyr and the former Financial Director of Repsol YPF.

For these services, the Cenyt Group received a total of 413,600 euros from Repsol and CaixaBank for an alleged strategy development. The judge indicates that when these events took place, Villarejo was an active police commissioner.