Internal Affairs locates a total of 33 hitherto unknown commissions that the now retired commissioner would have received from different private clients, among which commissions stand out on behalf of companies such as Vips, Citibank or Axa Seguros
The macro-cause regarding the private investigations that José Manuel Villarejo carried out with his business group, CENYT, for different clients -from Ibex 35 companies to individuals- will add another fifteen separate pieces to investigate some of the new works of the former commissioner that the Internal Affairs Unit (UAI) of the National Police identified in a recent report.
In said report, dated May 3, Internal Affairs located a total of 33 assignments hitherto unknown to researchers that the now retired commissioner would have received from different private clients, among which are parcels on behalf of companies such as Vips, Citibank or Axa Seguros.
This was in response to a request made on January 24 by the head of the Central Investigating Court Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, in which he instructed the investigative unit to issue a “progress report identifying other assignments from private contracting clients of CENYT, according to result of the intervened documentation”.
This is the material seized in the searches carried out in the houses and offices of Villarejo and his partner, Rafael Redondo, a huge amount of information that, as emerged in the first trial by Tándem, is still being analyzed, although the first records were in November 2017.
According to the legal sources consulted by Europa Press, of these 33 projects, not all of them are sufficiently important to open another line of research in Tandem, but around fifteen new separate pieces will be opened.
Tandemwhich began to be investigated at the headquarters of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in May 2017 and exploded months later with those first recordshas come to have more than thirty separate pieces, although over the years García Castellón has cleared around fifteen pieces, among which he has filed, finished investigating and sent to trial.
for now, the only pieces by Tándem that have reached oral hearing are ‘Iron’, ‘Land’ and ‘Pintor’, a trial that began last October and will last until at least next September. This week, it has entered its final stretch with the final conclusions of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which has gone from requesting 109 years in prison for Villarejo to 83.
Inside and outside of Spain
The police explained in their report that these 33 commissions follow “a scheme similar to the rest of the projects” already known, which he briefly describes as “investigation/intelligence projects” that Villarejo undertook through CENYT “on behalf of private clients, in exchange for large sums of money, and for whose execution public and private registries with restricted access are accessed and different investigative procedures restrictive of rights”.
Among the new projects located by the Police, the so-called ‘City’ or ‘Tall’ project stands out, which according to the UAI would have commissioned Citibank from Villarejo with a budget of 70,000 euros -40,000 as a provision of funds, plus another 30,000 euros, specifies the job- and that it would have been carried out between 2013 and 2015, although Internal Affairs reflects that it would be on standby.
The goal would have been take the necessary steps to “obtain sufficient evidentiary or indicative support” on an alleged crime of concealment of assets, by a former employee of a bank branch, in anticipation that he could be sentenced for crimes of fraud and misappropriation of which the bank would have been harmed. In addition to capturing the information, CENYT offered to analyze it and present an “intelligence report.”
Another of the projects considered by Villarejo would have been ‘Knight’, which would have come to him in 2013 through the internal audit director on behalf of Axa Seguros Generales, with a provision of funds of 60,000 euros, although Internal Affairs describes it as “inactive”. It would be related to rental contracts for new premises to open offices.
In ‘Mex’, a lawyer would have gone to CENYT in 2008 “on behalf of Grupo Vips” to “safeguard the interests of the business group”which could be at “some risk” due to “the illegal practices of a certain employee, with or without the collaboration of others”, given that they would have supposed “a significant economic loss while questioning internal security”. For this reason, Villarejo requested a fee of 110,000 euros.
In this new list, there are also other international projects. A) Yes, in ‘Deck’, a “multinational based in China” would have resorted to CENYT in 2013, and for 13,000 euros, due to “concern about the high standard of living detected in a worker, inconsistent with his remuneration”, of 2,000 euros per month. The employee would have received “abnormal income” of about 15,000 or 20,000 euros “with some frequency” and “without justifiable cause”.
The Police also points to a project called ‘Clerck’, where an alleged Saudi citizen would have asked him to “know in depth the activities” carried out by another man with which he “betrayed the trust placed” in it causing “the theft of significant amounts of cash, yet to be determined”. The work would have been carried out between 2011 and 2012 and, for it, Villarejo would have made two offers: 775,000 euros plus a success bonus or 1,750,000 euros.
For the projects that he would have executed, of these 33, Villarejo asked to collect an estimated total of between 9,524,500 and 26,079,500 euros. However, these are approximate figures, since the Commissioner offered a series of price ranges in some of these projects and also calculated his rates based on their success.