Overview
- Judge Leopoldo Puente closed the investigation and proposed trying José Luis Ábalos, ex‑aide Koldo García and businessman Víctor de Aldama over pandemic mask contracts routed through Puertos del Estado and ADIF.
- The order lists alleged crimes of bribery, criminal organization, influence peddling and embezzlement, and gives prosecutors and popular accusers 10 days to request opening of oral proceedings.
- Puente highlights Aldama’s non‑exculpatory confession, citing monthly €10,000 cash deliveries to García for distribution, some allegedly at the ministry or the minister’s residence, plus a below‑market lease‑option flat and luxury rent payments tied to Ábalos’s entourage.
- In a separate Supreme Court trial, Fiscal General Álvaro García Ortiz faces a charge of revealing secrets over a press note that drew on confidential emails from the tax case of Alberto González Amador.
- Testimony on day one exposed rifts among senior prosecutors: Madrid’s chief prosecutor Almudena Lastra voiced suspicion of García Ortiz, while Pilar Rodríguez and Diego Villafañe backed his actions; prosecutor Julián Salto called the order to send his emails legal, and messages showed urgency to obtain them on March 13.