The National court has decided to extend, for at least a month more, the secret to the summary where we investigate the relations between BBVA and the commissioner retired Jose Manuel Villarejo, who has been jailed since 2017 for leading supposedly a macrotrama of corruption. As stated in an order issued on January 3 by judge Alejandro Abascal, who has had access to THE COUNTRY, the court takes this decision for practicing new procedures requested by the Prosecution. “And for whose realization must follow necessarily to be practiced without knowledge of the result”, stresses the instructor, who notes that this initiative does not affect the right of defense of the accused, who will be able to access all of the content of the searches when you “lift” the secret.
The researchers adopt this decision, which extends the secret until the 4 February, after the office of the Prosecutor and the investigating judge interrogasen for close to 14 hours to the legal representative of the entity financial —Adolfo Fraguas, director of Legal Services at BBVA Spain—. The Public prosecutor suspects that the bank, accused as a legal person, hired to Villarejo to spy on political leaders, business people and journalists during the tenure of the previous president of the entity, Francisco Gonzalez. A relationship that lasted from 2004 to 2018 and which involved a turnover of about 11 million euros to the companies of the commissioner retired.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has asked, in addition, to the National Audience that will facilitate the internal research on this issue carried out by the BBVA, called report forensic, to learn first-hand the implications of the current directors and officers of BBVA in the case Villarejo. This is a documentation that the financial institution has contributed to the cause and that has raised doubts on the prosecutors.
Meanwhile, the National Audience continues to expand the research on the relations of the commissioner, retired with the companies in the country. In addition to BBVA, such investigations have already been dotted with other big companies such as Iberdrola, Repsol, Caixabank, Mutua Madrileña and constructora San José.
