The National Court has reopened the separate piece of the 3 percent case in which several CDC officials were investigated for donations to the party with the alleged purpose of illicitly financing said formation, as there was "no indication that accredits a mechanism of discovery." of black money.”
The Criminal Chamber has just revoked the decision of the investigating judge Santiago Pedraz to archive the case after considering that there was not enough evidence to bring those investigated to trial after the analysis by the Civil Guard of the cash income operation linked to donations to the party.
Specifically, it was examined whether a system had been devised based on the reversal in the form of cash of the donation made by those investigated as a form of compensation for the initial income, so that the cash held by CDC and presumably illicit origin, would pass into the legal economic circuit using the simulation of a donation, instead of being a contribution made voluntarily by the donor.
Now the court has agreed with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which appealed the judge's dismissal order. The Chamber considers the evidence collected by the Prosecutor's Office regarding the existence of indications of possible illegal financing by the political group CDC.
Hence, it is estimated that the investigation should continue, and Pedraz is interested in requesting the reports he deems appropriate in order to determine "the existence of possible criminal conduct for the crime of money laundering."
As Anti-Corruption had requested, the Chamber orders the judge to claim any bank documentation that may exist regarding bank taxes of those investigated made on dates close to the donations analyzed. To do this, the court agrees to the extension of the investigation.
In his letter, the prosecutor considered that there is sufficient evidence to bring to trial former officials of the extinct party as well as leaders who donated amounts before the suspicion that a crime of money laundering was committed.
Anti-corruption suspects that the donations received into the party were part of "some type of action through which the party receives, and justifies, funds of unknown origin under the protection of donations made by individuals."
According to it, in the period 2008-2015 the amounts received as donations by this political group rose to 1,673,040.49 euros if the data collected in the database analyzed by the Civil Guard is taken into consideration, and 769,800.49 euros for the period 2009-2014, if the “CDC” accounting is taken into consideration.
According to the document, donations began to decline in 2011 and increased again in 2014, producing a more than notable increase, both in number and amount of donations, in 2014 and 2015.
In 2015, the amount of donations received increased by 2,646% compared to those received in 2013, going from 14,640.00 euros to 402,085.00 euros.
Although the income in 2008 and 2015 is similar, the number of operations is not, requiring many more to achieve a similar volume of income.
On the one hand, in the years 2008 to 2010, donations are concentrated in the months of October to December. Furthermore, in that period, donations by individuals are strikingly higher than donations by individuals in the period between 2011 and 2013.
On the other hand, in 2014 and 2015, these donations made by individuals were presented in a non-systematic manner and without a criterion that could foresee them, specifically in the month of November 2014.
The prosecutor is based on the statements of the people investigated until now who explained, "almost coincidentally", how they made the donations under investigation. They did so at the request of both Daniel Osácar and Andreu Viloca, who held the status of treasurers.
"It is confirmed, after these statements, that the donations did not respond to membership fees. The former coordinator of the party Francesc Sánchez already explained in Court, on January 30, 2020, how in any case those donations from 2008 to 2010 "They could be payments of party fees, not only because of the amounts but because until 2014 these fees were not recorded as donations for tax or deduction reasons."
Likewise, he understood that the judge had not taken into account the statement made by Osácar, who confirmed the incriminating elements. "He stated how the mechanics of raising money from criminal activities (described in the following paragraph) was, in effect, involving several people affiliated with “CDC” to make donations to said party that, immediately, were reimbursed in cash with the money from said activities," the prosecutor says. Osácar even stated that the investigated Germá Gordó was the one who ran this structure.
