The magistrate tracks whether the former CDC leader acted as a lobbyist without being registered and the businessman denies having committed any irregularity and having received “not a single euro” from the Administration
Barcelona judge Joaquin Aguirre has reactivated the instruction of the ‘Voloh case‘ about alleged corruption and illegal financing of the ‘procés’. The magistrate has launched an investigation to find out if the businessman and former leader of Convergència Democràtica (CDC) David Madí charged commissions “for allegedly illegal acts”, according to the documentation to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access. The magistrate has confirmed that the former convergent position does not appear as a natural person in the Registry of Interest Groups (lobbyists) and only the Compañía General d’Aigües de Catalunya appears, of which he is a director, for which he has required the Civil Guard to check if the follow-ups carried out on the former position coincide with some of the registered dates. He has also requested a copy from the Tax Agency of his declaration of operations with third parties, as well as of his Nabul company.
“I have not charged any commission for an illicit issue. I have not received a single euro that has come to the Administration,” Madí told this newspaper. The businessman acknowledged that he does not appear in that register of interest group and that the meeting in which he participated in the Generalitat on the VTC was “accompanying” the company Mov (Uber), which was his client. He framed that meeting in the conversations that the Catalan Executive was having with the sector. One of the plots that he is investigating is related to an operation linked to the VTC sector (transport vehicles with driver).
The robed states in his resolution that when Madí declared as being investigated for the ‘Voloh case’ he was asked about the steps he took for other businessmen in various Conselleries. The businessman replied that he was registered as a “lobbyist”, according to the order, before the Generalitat de Catalunya and “for this reason he was authorized to carry out such visits”. The businessman, however, denies that he answered in this way and assures that he explained, regarding the matter of the VTC, that “he did not know” if this “official” meeting with the Generalitat had been registered, since he only “accompanied” his client (mov)
Does not provide documentation
The judge insists that Madí did not provide any documentation, in such a way that “only for this reason there would be sufficient cause to be able to issue an abbreviated order of procedure against him for the crime of influence peddling.” However, the magistrate has verified that the former CDC position does not appear “as a natural person” in the Registry of Interest Groups, “whose consultation is transparent, public and open.” His societies Nubul and Ikki XXI do not appear either.
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The instructor of the case, however, maintains that there is as an interest group the General Aigües de Catalunya Company. “It is not known that Madí is a partner, but he is president and proxy,” he specifies. His address is at Paseo de Gràcia 98 in Barcelona, in whose office the Civil Guard carried out a search in the macro-operation that took place in October 2020 and in which he was arrested as a businessman. Regarding this company, nine visits are recorded on the website of the Generalitat. By virtue of these data, the judge has agreed to order the Civil Guard if those dates coincide with the data obtained from the monitoring carried out on the employer.
The magistrate underlines that of these registered as an interest group “only” with respect to Aigües de Catalunya, “this would disqualify it” from acting as an interest group in another business other than water”. And he adds: “even in the case of water, the purpose of the visit must coincide with the activity verified by the Civil Guard” during the monitoring, given that the legislation on interest groups requires “total transparency” about the reason for the visit. Thus, for example, they appear in said registry meetings whose objective is “presentation of the company”. This reason, according to the judge, “would not protect him to do business with the one who was detected” with the president of Global Omnium, a company that is the parent company to which Aigües de Catalunya belongs chaired by Madí, but of which he is not a shareholder.