Francisco González denies intervening in the hiring of Villarejo and affirms that a former manager lied when targeting him

Download in the former head of Security the decision to hire Cenyt, the company of the investigated commissioner

The former president of BBVA Francisco González has declared this Friday before the judge of the National Court that is investigating the contracting by the bank of the services of the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo that he had no responsibility in contracting that security provider, and that Former director Antonio Béjar lied in court when he asserted that he ordered him to contract with the company that the head of Security, Julio Corrochano, told him.

In his second statement as being investigated in this case -the first was in 2019 when the piece was still under secrecy-, González has answered questions from his lawyer, anti-corruption prosecutors and the judge himself, Manuel, for two and a half hours. Garcia-Castellon. Legal sources consulted by Europa Press present at the interrogation have explained that the banker has fully ratified his first appearance.

In addition, after discharging responsibility for the hiring of Villarejo's company, Cenyt, in its head of Security, has explained that BBVA in a 2019 letter made a mistake by pointing out that Villarejo's hiring in relation to Ausbanc was carried out under your patronage. Although he would have pointed out that this assertion by the bank's lawyers was later rectified.

In this piece of the 'Tándem' case, the head of the Central Investigating Court number 6 examines the BBVA contracts with the Villarejo business group, Cenyt, for different projects --presumably illegal-- between at least 2004 and 2017, some works for which the entity would have paid the commissioner more than 10 million euros.

On this occasion, according to several sources consulted, González has indicated that he was not aware of the hiring of Villarejo by the bank or of the activities carried out by Cenyt during his presidency until May 27, 2018. In fact, it has affected that a Once the commissioner was arrested at the end of 2017, no one in the entity informed him that his company was related as a service provider to BBVA.

In line, he has asserted that, in fact, after the audit commissioned to PwC it was concluded that there was no documentary evidence that would place him in the process of contracting, billing and paying for Cenyt services, to which he has added that it is also not credible that a president enters into the detail of contracting suppliers.

In this sense, he has linked his task to strategic issues and supervision of the entity's results, in addition to his own representation tasks. And he has stressed that the bodies he presided over, such as the Board of Directors, had no function of monitoring or controlling executives with regard to hiring.

Other sources have highlighted from the appearance that the former president of BBVA has been emphatic in responding to the prosecutors and has claimed the solidity of what he calls 'FG values', that is, that everything that is done is legal, ethical and publishable.

RESEARCH WITHIN BBVA

González explained to the judge that as soon as he learned of the bank's hiring of Cenyt in May 2018, he ordered the person in charge of Regulation and Internal Control at BBVA Eduardo Arbizu to initiate an internal investigation. In fact, he has indicated that until his departure from the bank, in December 2018, he asked about the progress of the investigation every month, and that the answer he got was that there was no news.

Thus, he has insisted that at no time did anyone tell him that there had been irregularities in the hiring of Cenyt or in the development of Cenyt's activities for the bank.

Entering into specific contracts, he has been asked about Villarejo's work related to the takeover bid that Sacyr was preparing to take control of the bank, known as the 'Trap operation'. In this regard, González has pointed out that it was his head of Security who decided to hire an external company --the commissioner's-- and that in fact a meeting was called attended by several executives, in which Corrochano was present, who assured that he had a way of getting more information about that construction company's movement through a research firm.

However, he has once again stressed that Corrochano did not need authorization to hire external companies because he had the powers to do so as the bank's head of Security. And he has insisted that he was not informed that the chosen supplier was Villarejo because as president of the bank he did not enter who the suppliers were.

Consequently, he has also denied that anyone informed him that Cenyt was linked to an active police officer, and has stated that he did not know either the commissioner or his partner --Rafael Redondo--, and that he was not informed that it would work with sensitive information about people related to the Sacyr operation, including the president of the construction company, Luis del Rivero. He also did not know the amounts of the contracts with Villarejo, he has asserted.

Yes, he has acknowledged that in December 2004 he received on two occasions from the then CEO of BBVA, Ángel Cano, notes with common, public and irrelevant information relating to Sacyr, but that at no time did they refer to call traffic or to any matter that might be illegal. In fact, González has explained that they seemed to be internal summaries of the bank but that they lacked letterhead or signature.

Thus, he has denied having ever received reports from Cenyt, and has added that in December 2004 he stopped receiving more information because the operation was unfeasible and it was a matter of time before it fell apart.

KROLL, THE DEVELOPERS AND AUSBANC

On the other hand, regarding the investigation subcontracted by the bank to investigate certain real estate developers, González has also denied that he was aware that the Kroll detective agency was initially hired and, in fact, has insisted that he only knows that they have been hired. this type of services when they inform you that that agency has not obtained good results. Thus, he has denied that he told Béjar that they should count on the company that Corrochano recommended for that job.

Regarding Villarejo's work for the bank, which was intended to end the pressure from Ausbanc, González explained that he was not aware that he was hired either, and pointed out that there has been an "unfortunate error" of origin that stems from a letter from BBVA in which it is asserted that Cenyt is elected "under its patronage".

He says that this phrase was an unfortunate mistake that caused him to be called as an investigated in the case, and has indicated that in the statement of Adolfo Fraguas as legal representative of the entity, he clarified that they had no evidence on that point.