Around nine thirty at night on November 21, 2024, businessman Víctor de Aldama left the Soto del Real prison. He had been imprisoned for 40 days. That same morning he had appeared voluntarily at the National Court, where for several hours he shot before Judge Ismael Moreno against relevant names of the Government and the PSOE, whom he accused of collecting envelopes full of money, among other perks. He stated that he himself had paid 250,000 euros in commissions to former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and 100,000 to his right-hand man, Koldo García.
The statement helped him get out of jail, where he had been imprisoned for his involvement in another case, a million-dollar hydrocarbon fraud. And also for the Supreme Court to promote new lines of investigation that investigate the existence of a construction-fixing plot located at the heart of the Executive and the party whose dimension is yet to be determined. Some of Aldama's revelations have been supported by the content of the taped recordings and messages, but others are pending verification. Among them, the fate of the corrupt loot that was supposedly paid to Ábalos and Koldo García, who will sit again this week in front of the high court judge investigating them.
Magistrate Leopoldo Puente has summoned them to explain the “irregular and opaque income” attributed to them in the latest report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard provided to the summary. This report supports the evidence of the collection of bribes – “chistorras”, “soles” or “lettugas”, which was what they called the different bills in the jargon of the plot -, although the agents reduce for the moment the money without a bank trace that Ábalos handled in five years to 95,437.33 euros. Funds that she spent on paying child support for one of her children, giving jewelry and flowers to one of her ex-partners, or paying for the salary of the housekeeper. Aldama stated that he alone had paid Ábalos 250,000 euros and pointed out that there were more businessmen involved in the bribes.
According to the UCO, this money was supplied to Ábalos by his squire Koldo García, who, in turn, collected it from businessmen with interests in the Ministry of Transportation in which they both worked between 2018 and 2021. Aldama, among them. In fact, Judge Puente considers it proven that the advisor received a “payroll” of 10,000 euros per month from Aldama for at least two and a half years. With these funds, the commission agent intended to ensure a certain “capacity for action” in a ministry with a million-dollar budget.
Before the judge of the National Court, Aldama stated that he had seen on several occasions how Koldo García distributed the money that he gave him with Ábalos at the Ministry. The intercepted messages that the UCO has analyzed so far reveal this transfer of money, which leads the judge investigating the case in the Supreme Court to say that this distribution was done “either by giving him his part in cash, or by assuming expenses that correspond to him,” in reference to Ábalos.
Public works rigging
In his statements in court, Aldama also stated that he acted as an intermediary for certain construction companies so that they were awarded works in exchange for commissions. And he mentioned companies such as Public Works and Irrigation (OPR) and Levantina. Aldama assured that in 2019 he collected 70,000 euros from a company linked to José Ruz, from Levantina, for his role as an intermediary in works tendered by Transport. Both construction companies appear in another subsequent UCO report as winners of contracts under suspicion in exchange for bribes and perks.
To try to corroborate his story, Aldama provided a list of works from the General Directorate of Highways of the Ministry of Transportation where there is a list of contracts that would be “pre-awarded” to certain companies that “would have acquired the commitment to pay commissions if they were awarded.” In addition, he provided a screenshot with some handwritten notes that he attributed to Koldo García and which included up to six rigged contracts.
To verify the veracity of those handwritten notes, the judge commissioned an expert report that concluded that those writings were from Koldo García, who had rejected that they were his handwriting. The judge relied on that report to ask the UCO to investigate the works indicated by the contractor. The armed institute unit has been working since then to supervise the entire process and identify the companies awarded these works.
Judge Puente requested the analysis of these works in April 2025, two months before the Civil Guard report that led to the entry into prison of the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE Santos Cerdán. Anti-corruption prosecutor Alejandro Luzón states in a document submitted to the court that, in his first statement at the National Court, Aldama assured that he had given Cerdán 15,000 euros in cash. And that he “ratified and expanded” that statement in the Supreme Court, where he referred to Cerdán's relationship with Acciona that emerged months later in the recordings intercepted from Koldo García.
The analysis of those audios in which Cerdán “explicitly” recognizes the collection of commissions linked to the awarding of certain public works, as well as their distribution with other investigators, led the judge to agree to his imprisonment last June. Then, the judge also demanded that the UCO investigate the assets of the former PSOE number three, to whom he attributes the role of collector of the alleged bribes.
In a recent order in which he rejected his release, Judge Puente admitted that these reports had not been concluded “even in their essential aspects.” What's more, he pointed out that “mismatches between their tax returns and the real origin of certain bank income” had been found, which is why additional information had to be requested. It is expected that this police analysis will shed light on an alleged collection of bribes for the plot that the judge and the Prosecutor's Office estimate to be five million euros.
In his first statement, Aldama also spoke of another payment of 25,000 euros more for the chief of staff of the Minister of Finance and of a request of 50,000 euros for the then Canarian president, Ángel Víctor Torres. Both deny it and, for the moment, it has not been proven that these payments occurred.
Apartments and meetings with women
Among the accusations made by Aldama are also those related to the tourist rental apartments that he claims to have paid for Ábalos, Koldo García and other people to have meetings with women. In the document he submitted to the Supreme Court, he stated that the rental of an apartment on Atocha Street was “recurring,” although before the judge he acknowledged that there was only one meeting in that apartment. Last February, the magistrate asked him for a list of those alleged apartments and to collect the dates of the contracts and stays and their payment, as well as whether there were payments to the women and who assumed them. There is no evidence, at the moment, that this documentation has been provided.
Among the bribes that do appear accredited is the payment of the rent for the home of an ex-partner of Ábalos. This is an income of 2,700 euros per month for almost three years. The investigations have proven that Aldama, through a partner, paid up to 32 monthly payments of that rent: a total of 82,298.40 euros. The judge has also given veracity to another of the revelations that Aldama made in his confession: the lease contract with an option to purchase by Ábalos for an apartment on Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, one of the main arteries of the capital, for a sale price (750,000 euros) “apparently much lower than the market price.”
The existence of that contract was revealed by Aldama in the first writing he provided to the Supreme Court with alleged evidence after being released. In that writing, Aldama claimed that he agreed to give Ábalos a property valued at 1.9 million euros. The commission agent maintained that this operation actually covered up the “guarantee” of the bribes that the then minister was supposedly going to collect from certain construction companies for pre-awarded works. The agreement was that if he could not collect those commissions he would keep the apartment. According to Aldama, the property was never occupied by Ábalos and “no rent was paid.” In an interview in The CountryÁbalos stated that what was related to this property was “all a lie” and that although he does not remember if he signed that contract, it was “impossible” to materialize it because there was a tenant in the apartment.
Two years after the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office uncovered an alleged corrupt network in the Ministry of Transport and the investigations began, the reports on public works awards and Cerdán's assets claimed from the UCO will measure the real scope of the commission agent's accusations, who has a relevant role as an alleged corrupter, but also as a source of some evidence that has allowed the scope of the investigation to be expanded.