Officers from the Police Economic and Financial Crimes Fighting Branch Directorate, known as UDEF, continued to publish the reports they prepared over a long period for the Gürtel case in Valencia. The court that oversaw the final phase of the Gürtel conspiracy gave two days for agents to present statements. The process, however, is expected to extend beyond four days as today’s session moves to the last defenses, including that of the former president of the regional government, Francisco Camps.
Defenses also appeared during the latest round of interrogations. Dora Ibars, a former managing director of Corporate Promotions from 2003 to 2013 and a central figure in the contracts connected to Francisco Camps, drew attention from representatives of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and UDEF. They cited Ibars as the architect of major projects in which thirteen participants in Fitur 2009 took part, noting that the assembly for Fitur 2009 occurred without an administrative file. Police officers who appeared before the prosecutor last week reiterated this point in Ibars’ defense.
The defense counsel asserted that the intervention by the former head of Corporate Promotion was limited to authorizing image matters for the Generalitat. The attorney pressed for specifics on which invoices Ibars approved in the contract for the 2005 Communications Guide, which had been distributed to journalists as USB drives for Christmas 2004. The lawyer requested details on what Gürtel did for eighty eight thousand nine hundred seventy five euros, spread across eight invoices, some of which were printed or itemized. Two inspectors admitted that only three invoices existed in the UDEF report because the others were linked to individuals sent by the Generalitat.
Phones Were Tapped
UDEF gathered further information about the major projects stand at Fitur 2009 after evidence from October 2008 to February 2009 showed listening to the Gürtel members. The group also took part in live discussions about changes to the stand’s budget, which led to charges against Dora Ibars and Francisco Camps. The investigator noted that Ibars should specify how much of the cost should be attributed to each stand and how to negotiate with the parties involved in the Orange Market project. The Valencia Tourism Agency had contributed its own stand and the design of a large pavilion for the event, though the assembly was handled separately.
UDEF replied to the former Corporate Affairs director’s counsel that Ibars led the negotiations to approve the project, determine the budget, arrange financing, and define what would be attributed to each organization connected with the Generalitat. She was described as the person who set those definitions. Ibars’s lawyer pressed for clarification, asking how the investigators reached their conclusion. The response pointed to evidence from telephone conversations among Gürtel members and an email from Cacsa noting the defined cost allocations for the asset in question. In reply to the Generalitat’s lawyer, UDEF investigators stated that Orange Market maintained a profit margin of fifty point five three percent and that the financial details reflected this figure. These statements are part of the ongoing efforts to map the financial flow within the case and to identify the roles of key players within the promotional campaigns involved in Fitur 2009 and related activities.