“Whoever provided this information from the Tax Agency has committed an irregularity, if not a crime,” maintains the president of the Treasury technicians, Carlos Cruzado.
The president of the Union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (Gestha), Carlos Cruzado considers it “irregular” that the former chief of staff of the Ministry of Finance in 2015, Felipe Martínez Ricohad access to the tax information of the co-founder of Podemos Juan Carlos Monedero.
This newspaper reported this Monday that the trusted man of Christopher Montoro On February 10, 2015, he had sent an email to an official ’email’ of the Ministry of Finance in which he addressed the “minister”, to whom he provided tax data of the former number three of the purple formation. “Your checking account has been moving. There is some type of undeclared fraud“, he wrote.
This message is included in the summary that the judge of Tarragona secretly instructs Ruben Rus Vela, that tries to determine, with the support of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Carmen García Cerdáif those responsible for the consultancy Equipo Economico, founded by Cristóbal Montoro in 2006they used their “influences“in the PP Government to benefit its clients.
“The chief of staff does not have to have information from the Tax Agency. Whoever provided this information from the Tax Agency, from our point of view, has committed an irregularity, if not a crime.“argues Cruzado, who defends that in the case of Monedero “it is clear, no information can come out of the Tax Agency. We believe that neither does the minister” Cristóbal Montoro.
Chief of staff
And since the law obliges officials not to reveal this information, Cruzado continues, and if we take into account that the leadership of the Tax Agency ends with the Secretary of State, “outside of there it does not seem that this information can come out. And of course the The minister’s chief of staff is not a person who could have that information“.
Cristóbal Montoro, in the Senate.
| EFE
“I don’t know if we are talking about events that have already been prescribed, if they are very old; we would have to see the dates, but of course, what I can assure is that in the Tax Agency there are quite rigorous control procedures regarding officials” , completes the president of the Treasury technicians, who then details the current procedure: “Internal audit establishes access controls, let’s say that all officials are subject to exhaustive control. But of course, when issues arise that call into question the work of senior officials or senior managers of the Tax agency, it seems that the control is not similar. And this can not be”.
Cruzado draws attention is that the data could also have been used “for a political activity or whatever, as is the case with the ‘ABC’ journalist or in this case Wallet. It is obvious that this regulation has nothing“.
“No doubt”
“If the information is within the Tax Agency, it can be understood that there are those who think that it is not a crime, but when going outside, as is the case in this case, there is no doubt. This is regardless of the fact that there may be other crimes,” continues this Treasury technician.
Cruzado recalls, in the same sense, that the Treasury technicians already reported similar events during the investigation of the Gürtel case: “This already happened in relation to illegal donations to the PP. Before sending it to the judge, a report appeared that was later called the ‘Cáritas report’, justifying those donations. It could be seen that had come from a computer of Montoro’s chief of staff, who was then the brother of Santiago Menéndez. The same thing happened. And when Montoro flaunted knowing data, we always said that he was on the verge of a red line because the law obliges officials not to reveal this tax information.”
In the Tarragona case, which was opened in 2018 and which has remained secret since then, the person who was also Montoro’s chief of staff is being investigated, Ricardo Martínez Rico; and the managing partners of the firm Manuel de Vicente-Tutor and Salvador Ruiz Gallud. The latter managed the Tax Agency between 2001 and 2004. This newspaper has unsuccessfully claimed the version of the events of the directors investigated in the Tarragona and Montoro courts, which are not investigated. The former minister has always assured that he left the law firm in 2008.