The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz is investigating various contracts and payments made between 2009 and 2011 by Ibex companies telephone, Natural gas Y Repsolto the Catalan audiovisual production company triacominvolved in the alleged irregular financing of Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC). The magistrate was the instructor of the “3% case” on the alleged payment of commissions to the extinct party in exchange for awards of services and works, a cause for which he is pending trial. As a result of those investigations, Pedraz opened a separate piece on Triacom, which he considers another possible way to channel funds to the CDC.
The magistrate has on his table three reports made jointly by the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Civil Guardto which EL PERIÓDICO has had access, in which he details a series of economic operations carried out in the years prior to the start of the ‘procés’ between triacom (directed by the ex-manager of TV3 Oriol Carbó) and telephone, Natural gas Y Repsol (the latter through its foundation), as well as the granting by the Generalitat of allegedly anomalous credits and aid to said production company. The Repsol Foundation agreement was signed by what was its vice president in 2009, the ‘ex-minister’ of Economy Jaume Giro.
One of the main protagonists in these businesses is the businessman David Madi, a former CDC position who was the right hand of Artur Mas (president of the Generalitat when the contracts and payments under suspicion were made) and who at the end of 2013 signed for Telefónica as an advisor, a position he held for three years. According to the reports, Madí would have acted as a link, for example, in the concession to Telefónica and other companies in the sector of contracts promoted by the Center for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI), the public body that manages the IT and telecommunications services of the Generalitat.
At an “exorbitant” price
The police report on the relationship between Telefónica and Triacom, with 139 pages plus attachments, states that, in July 2010, Telefónica went to Triacom for two specific tasks: on the one hand, to assume the series sponsorship provisionally titled ‘Jo vull ser’, and on the other hand, the production of two Corporate videos, one on the new headquarters (the so-called Telefónica Tower) and another on the Telefónica Universitas Campus. For this assignment, Telefónica undertook to pay €2,950,000 (VAT included).
The commitment materialized in five payments carried out by Telefónica between October 2010 and November 2011. However, the Mossos and the Civil Guard maintain that “no record of completion” series ‘Jo vull ser’ (no contract was formalized between the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals and Triacom) and of the videos only one of them is known, that of the new headquarters. Regarding the video of the Universitas Campus, the agents argue, “it has not been proven that it was created, produced or carried out”, especially “when its need does not seem justified”. And, in the opinion of both police forces, the price set for all that work is “exorbitant”. At no time did Telefónica claim the money from Triacom and the telephone operator “was subject to regularization”, which suggests that it regularized the 2.9 million euros before the Treasury.
Start point
The same Tax Agency reported in another legal proceeding that the Telefónica contract “seems to be the starting point for accounting for fake bills“, since “the temporal distribution” of the charges to this company “coincides” with Triacom’s payments to certain companies for work also supposedly not carried out.
The companies that received money from Triacom were run by Juan Manuel Parra (Hispart, Audiovisual Exit and Estéreo Rent, which are CDC providers), David Madi (Nubul Consulting, IKI CAT XXI and ICAT Desenvolupament), the brother-in-law of Oriol Carbo (Emotional Base) and another businessman. The police stress that, at that time, Madí was “head of the campaign” for the CDC, and that Parra declared in court that, on the instructions of the ‘ex-minister’ Germa Gordohad invoiced Triacom for electoral campaign work carried out for the CDC in 2010. Madí has already been sentenced to 14 months in prison for issuing false invoices, but he has not yet been charged in the National Court for the ‘Triacom case’.
Mossos and Civil Guard conclude that Telefónica payments could respond to “underlying operations” with the “supposed purpose of satisfy the interest of people and companies through three routes”, with a possible “in order to obtain a economic compensation that would have materialized with the awarding of contracts promoted by the CTTI to Telefónica”. The agents specify that, “as a link”, figure Madí, “a person of influence in Catalonia”, and they position Triacom “as the necessary instrument to hide the true purpose of payments” Made by Telefónica.
the three ways
The first of these ways, the report details, would be the total amount received by the Madí companies, which amounted to €441,965. The second, the payments made to the companies of Juan Manuel Parra (who was already sentenced for the ‘Palau case’) to cover the electoral campaign of the CDC and whose amount was €885,000. And, finally, the payment of 1.6 million euros by Triacom to other companies instrumental companies from your administrator, Oriol Carbo, with the supposed objective of “deducting the payment of taxes”. The sum of all these disbursements is €2,972,374“relatively close amount” to the €2,950,000 paid by Telefónica, the researchers emphasize.
The influence “and reference” of Madí, “through his political career” in the CDC and, therefore, in the Catalan public administration, would be reflected, according to the reports, with the formation of the contracts signed by one of his companies, Nubul Consulting, and Telefónica for “higher level” strategic consulting advice. In this sense, the Mossos and the Civil Guard reveal that, in addition to Telefónica, Nubul also formalized contracts with T-Systems ITC Iberia (731,205 euros, between 2011 and 2013) and Idra Systems (203,000 euros, on the same dates), entities that were also awarded contracts promoted by the CTTI.
The CTTI started a macro-contest to respond to the new ICT management model (information and communication technologies) on October 27, 2011, using as a process the so-called “competitive dialogue”, which grants a “broad margin of maneuver” to the bidder to choose the companies participating in the contest. Telefónica and its subsidiaries were the most benefited, with the concession, the following year, in August 2012, of four contracts which amounted to almost €640 million.
the investigations
Related news
Regarding this CTTI bankruptcy, the Sindicatura de Comptes detected “a multitude of irregularities”, among them that Carlos Flamerichwho was General Director of Telecommunications of the Generalitat, participated in all the phases of the procedure until its closure, despite the fact that he had been linked up to a year before to Concatel Vanture Team, a firm that had worked for Telefónica, at the same time that he was, since April 2012, president of a CDC sector. The police forces also link Madí to the Concatel group, given that he was a counselor of Vanture ESS up to nine days after the award of services. The Sindicatura collects various administrative irregularities.
The Prosecutor of the National Court opened an investigation in 2016 to clarify whether the CTTI favored companies in order to implement “state structures” in Catalonia. Among the suspicious awards there was one that was awarded to Telefónica, T-Systems and other companies in the sector. The Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, received a report from the Catalan Antifrau Office (OAC) on the alleged collusion to modify some clauses to benefit Telefónica “with the intervention of a CiU officer”, in order to “irregularly influence the award”. The prosecution, in this case, decided not to open a criminal investigation.
