A battery of Anticorruption proceedings will delay the end of the investigations into Villarejo's work for BBVA

The Prosecutor's Office and the bank itself are expected to ask the judge to take new evidence before concluding the investigation

MADRID, 27 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

A new battery of proceedings by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office threatens to delay the end of the investigation that the judge of the National High Court Manuel García Castellón coordinates in relation to the alleged work that the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo would have carried out for BBVA.

Legal sources have explained to Europa Press that although this separate piece of the 'Tandem' macro-cause is close to its conclusion, the investigation of it could take a couple of more months to carry out some proceedings that the magistrate finds reasonable.

Although the Public Prosecutor's Office has not yet specified these requests, the anti-corruption prosecutors Miguel Serrano and Alejandro Cabaleiro presented a brief on May 31 partially adhering to the appeal filed by the former head of Security of the Julio Corrochano bank.

In the same two prosecutors referred to some of the steps requested by Corrochano considering that they are necessary and useful despite the fact that, remember, they were rejected by the instructor.

Specifically, and in relation to the testimony of Clara Codesal and Beatriz Aguiriano, the magistrate ruled out calling them to testify as the reason for their summons was not determined. The Prosecutor's Office points out that both "had, not only access, but a direct and decisive intervention for the payment of the bills."

"According to the internal regulations for their payment, they could only authorize if they had had access to the contract and the correct execution of the service, therefore there are indications that if they were paid, it was in breach of such regulations by orders of their superiors (investigated here). That is why his statement is of vital importance and transcendence," argues Anti-Corruption.

In this context, the Prosecutor's Office also reports favorably to the request that José María Lazarrabal testify as a witness. "The diligence is pertinent, necessary and useful", they assure, transferring the same criterion to the testimonial of Isabel López.

In addition to these requests and others that the Prosecutor's Office may request, BBVA also plans to request the judge to take new evidence. And the same sources point out that it is unlikely that there will be time to carry out all of them before July 29, when the current extension of this investigation phase expires, which will foreseeably lead to the lengthening of the investigation.

In this piece number 9, where both BBVA and its former president Francisco González are accused, the head of the Central Investigating Court Number 6 investigates the services contracted by the bank to CENYT -flagship of the Villarejo business group- for different projects to the least between 2004 and 2017. For these works, the entity would have paid the commissioner more than 10 million euros.

Among the latest proceedings carried out by the judge are the statement made on May 30 as a witness by the former CEO of the entity and current president of Caixabank, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, and by the former director of Communication, Javier Ayuso.

The month of May also served for the magistrate to listen to the current adviser to the BBVA Presidency, Juan Asúa Madariaga, the person in charge of Security Nazario Campo, the former director of the Commercial Banking Network Ignacio Pérez and the former CENYT employee Alejandra Fernández-Chico.

Since the beginning of the year, the instructor gave a strong acceleration to this piece, agreeing on a total of 14 witness statements and investigated, among which the former head of internal control of the entity Eduardo Arbizu or the one who was head of risks of the bank Manuel Castro.

But, in addition, these last months have also served for the judge to have heard the former legal managers of the bank José Manuel García Crespo and Eduardo Ortega, who was the member until 2018 of the BBVA Management Committee Ricardo Gómez Barredo and the accounting technician of the Gregorio Egea entity.