The Prosecutor's Office asks the judge to extend the investigation of the 'Popular case' for three more months

The magistrate gives the parties three days to rule on this new extension

MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Prosecutor of the National Court has asked the magistrate of the National Court José Luis Calama to agree to extend the investigation for three more months into the alleged accounting irregularities of Banco Popular in 2016 and the leaks to the press a year after would have caused its resolution in mid-2017.

In an order of this same Tuesday, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Court of Instruction number 4 transfers the request of the Public Ministry to the parties in person and gives them a period of three days to rule on it. .

Thus, despite the fact that in the summer legal sources indicated that the investigative phase was coming to an end after almost five years, this new request for extension may be used, according to other sources in the case, to conclude pending expert reports and to dispatch the proceedings that may request from one of the aforementioned consultants.

It should be remembered that on January 25 the judge summoned the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) auditor Jose María Sanz Olmeda, who coordinated the audits of Banco Popular's annual accounts between 2009 and 2015, as being investigated.

However, in this case the magistrate has already heard the main protagonists, including the former presidents of Popular, Ángel Ron and Emilio Saracho, the former Minister of Economy Luis de Guindos, the president of Santander, Patricia Botín, or those responsible of international organizations such as the Single Resolution Board. In addition, he has collected numerous documentation and expert reports.

The investigation into El Popular, which was initially assumed by the then head of the court, Fernando Andreu, is the most extensive and complex case that Calama is in charge of, and to which he has dedicated a large part of his efforts since he arrived at the Central de Instruction Number 4, which is also in charge of delving into the alleged espionage of members of the Government in the 'Pegasus case'.