On Wednesday, Santos Cerdán, the former PSOE number three in Spain, was released from prison after five months in pre-trial detention for his role in the 'caso Koldo', the massive corruption investigation in which the ex-transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, is also implicated. The Supreme Court in Madrid ruled that there was no risk of evidence tampering by Cerdán, whose passport has been withdrawn, is prohibited from leaving Spain and must report to a court every fortnight.
At the start of last week, the Guardia Civil's Central Operational Unit submitted a 226-page report to the Supreme Court. This identifies Cerdán as the link between the Spanish Government and the company Acciona for the alleged rigging of public contracts.
In this report is evidence from the phone of Cerdán's one-time business partner, Antxon Alonso. A note refers to 'Palma building processor'. The Guardia Civil believe that this relates to the contract for the redevelopment work at Palma Airport. Acciona was awarded the contract worth €198 million.
This reference was from a videoconference. One of the participants was Justo Vicente Pelegrini, an Acciona senior executive who has been charged along with two other executives in respect of the Koldo* case. There are suspicions of bribery but no conclusive evidence as yet that a bribe was paid.
The Guardia have highlighted examples of alleged bribery in the awarding of other contracts. Investigators maintain that the company owned by PSOE's former secretary of organisation, Servinabar, was receiving two per cent of contract amounts.
* Koldo García was political adviser to José Luis Ábalos; in effect his right-hand man.