The AN asks the judge in the 'Villarejo' case to send it documents before deciding on the Repsol and Caixabank piece

The Prosecutor's Office interested in prosecuting the two companies and their top managers at the time Villarejo was hired in June 2022

MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Criminal Chamber of the National Court has requested the magistrate who is investigating the piece of the 'Tándem' case in which the work of the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo for Repsol and Caixa Bank was investigated to send him part of the requested documentation and that by mistake it did not arrive. The Prosecutor's Office awaits the resolution of the Chamber since the completion of the investigation was appealed in June 2022.

In an order dated January 12, and to which Europa Press has had access, the magistrates of the Third Section show that of the three CDs that they have been sent with documentation to resolve the Prosecutor's appeal, two of them are repeated --they house the same documents--.

"After reviewing the individuals designated by the Public Prosecutor, there are 3 CDS provided by Repsol SA: CD1 containing documents number 1 to 74, CD 2 containing documents number 75 to 161 and CD 3 containing documents number 75 to 161 (instead of contain documents no. 162 to 321)", they indicate.

Therefore, they require the Central Investigating Court number 6, headed by Manuel García-Castellón, that within the framework of that piece 21 of the 'Tándem' case, resubmit CD 3 but this time with the documents that go from 162 to 321.

It should be remembered that in its appeal, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor requested that Repsol and Caixabank, the president of the first, Antonio Brufau, and the former president of the second, Isidro Fainé, be prosecuted. He justified his opposition to the order in which the magistrate exonerated the top managers and the companies by focusing on the "indications of the commission" of crimes by all of them and which, in his opinion, persist.

It was on June 2 when García-Castellón issued the order to pass to the abbreviated procedure, prosecuting the former heads of Security of both companies at the time of hiring: Rafael Araujo (Repsol) and Miguel Ángel Fernández Rancaño (CaixaBank). And he did it, he explained, for acts that can be described as active bribery.

In that order, the judge ordered the dismissal for both companies, for Brufau, Fainé and also for Repsol executives Luis Suárez de Lezo, Juan de Amunátegui and Joaquín Uris, and for the former general director of CaixaBank Media, Antonio Masanell.

All this within the framework of piece 21 of the 'Tándem' macro-cause, in which the magistrate investigated whether Repsol and CaixaBank had asked CENYT, the Villarejo business group, in 2011 to spy on the then president of Sacyr Luis Del Rivero and their environment to prevent the company and its Mexican ally Pemex from taking control of Repsol.

Regarding the oil company, the Public Ministry maintained in its letter that there are indications that the "controls required by the company's crime prevention plan were breached in the hiring" of Villarejo, seeking to "defend the social interest of the company against the syndication agreement reached by Sacyr".

But in addition, the Prosecutor's Office pointed out, "as has been verified indicatively in the present case, the award in favor of CENYT was approved by someone who, based on the amount, did not have the appropriate level to make it." "In addition, the award was made without the intervention of the purchasing unit and without the supplier being previously qualified. Likewise, all contracting was centralized in a single person, breaching the segregation of functions included in the prevention plans", explained.

As for CaixaBank, Anticorruption pointed out that "there is no record" that the "necessary proof of verification of the services provided by CENYT, as an essential prerequisite for the financial management area to authorize their payment" was complied with "adequately".

Along these lines, it also drew attention to an internal bank rule related to the budget management model --which is of "capital importance in the crime prevention model"-- and which would have been "blatantly violated in the process of verification and payment of the services contracted with CENYT".