The president of Iberdrola will testify as investigated by the case Villarejo on January 18

The judge of reinforcement of the National Court Joaquín Gadea has cited for next January 18 at 10.30 to the president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, investigated by the orders of the electric company Cenyt, linked to the excomisario José Villarejo, according to legal sources.

The president of Iberdrola accuses the judge of charging him before checking the validity of the evidence.

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Only remained to set a date after last June the head of the court, Manuel García-Castellón, agreed to charge Sánchez Galán for alleged crimes of active bribery, against privacy and falsehood in commercial documents.

The round of statements will begin on January 17, with the interrogations of the general business director of Iberdrola, Francisco Martínez Córcoles, and the former head of the Office of the President Rafael Orbegozo. On Tuesday 18, in addition to Sánchez Galán, the former president of Iberdrola Spain Fernando Becker is also summoned, while two days later it will be the turn of Iberdrola Renovables Energía, the subsidiary of the group that, unlike the parent company, was charged in the case.

In charging Sánchez Galán and the three former executives, at the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, García-Castellón explained that from their respective positions they were able to participate in the hiring of the services of the commissioner when he was still active in the National Police Corps, that the invoices corresponding to those services were manipulated and that they had access to reserved data of the persons under investigation.

In this piece number 17 of ‘Tandem’ – the macrocausa that dissects the many and varied services provided by Villarejo in a private capacity – the orders that the electricity would have made the commissioner between 2004 and 2017 are investigated.

According to the judicial account, the prhe first project would have been ‘Arrow’, which would have been aimed at eliminating municipal and environmentalists’ opposition to the construction of a power station in Arcos de la Frontera (Cádiz).

Between 2004 and 2005 ‘Black Board’ or ‘B-B’ would have been developed to supposedly obtain compromising information about Manuel Pizarro, president at that time of Endesa, Iberdrola’s great rival in the electricity sector.

Already in 2009, Villarejo would have been entrusted with ‘Gipsy’ and ‘Posy’. The first would have consisted of investigating a director of the electric, José María Álvarez, and a supplier, Francisco Julián Gutiérrez, on suspicion that it could mediate the payment of illegal commissions. With the second project, the commissioner’s inquiries would have extended to the link between Álvarez and Florentino Pérez, president of ACS, to prevent the construction company’s assault on the electricity company.

Finally, in 2011, Villarejo would have been dedicated to ‘Wind’ to investigate the Swiss company Eólica Dobrogea, its majority shareholder, Chrisopher Kaap, and his proxy, Corneliu Dica. Iberdrola Renovables had allied with the wind power company to develop a series of projects in Romania, but over time conflicts arose that were eventually resolved in favour of the Spanish company in an arbitration procedure.

In the indictment, Judge García-Castellón indicated that, from Iberdrola’s accounting, it is known that fifteen invoices were received and paid without order issued by CENYT, Villarejo’s business group, between 2004 and 2012 for a total amount of 1.04 million.