Santander (EFE) family environment created a plot of “several million euros”.
The main person involved, for whom the judge has decreed imprisonment – he has also released his wife and two daughters with charges – would have designed, together with his family environment, a strategy to introduce into the legal circuit the significant amounts he received, supposedly in the form of illegal commissions by four winning companies.
During the search of the home of this man, head of the road service of the Ministry of Public Works, the agents found 530,000 euros in a safe hidden in a wall and a machine to count money, according to reports from the National Police and the Agency Tributary in a press release this Friday.
As explained by the National Police in a statement, the senior official intervened in the preparation of bids from specific bidders, presumably issuing an arbitrary assessment of the subjective bid assessment criteria and expelling other potential bidders.
For this, the investigation indicates that it modified prices, negotiated the terms of the tenders with those companies and made use of privileged information.
GIFTS AND MILLIONAIRE ACCOUNTS
In addition, the family enjoyed various gifts and a vehicle whose renting contract was paid for by one of the companies that was awarded public works contracts in whose technical reports the person investigated participated directly.
After the arrests, bank accounts and financial assets amounting to “several million euros” have been blocked, as well as other assets that those investigated may have at their disposal.
In addition, the Police “does not rule out” new actions.
The investigation began in the first months of 2022, when the Tax Agency “was aware” of the possible participation of this high-ranking official of the Government of Cantabria in the manipulation of public works contract awards in the region.
This department detected that both the official and his family registered “a significant unjustified increase in assets” between 2013 and 2022, which can be estimated at “several million euros”.
ARREST OF THOSE INVOLVED
Following this investigation, the Central Unit for Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF) and the Tax Administration Agency, directed by Santander Examining Court number 5, carried out searches last Wednesday in the office of the official in the Government Public Works Department de Cantabria, at the headquarters of the winning companies and at the private homes of the members of the plot, who were arrested.
The detained official, who has entered prison this Friday and the other seven implicated (four company administrators and their family), who have been released, are charged with the crimes of bribery, contracting fraud and money laundering.
During the search that was carried out at the home of the investigated official, 530,000 euros were detected in a safe hidden in a wall and a machine to count money.
Abundant documentation has also been seized, both on paper and computerized, which will allow further progress in the investigation.
