Claire Wilson
SPANISH police searched the headquarters of the ruling People’s Party (PP) for 14 hours as part of a corruption investigation that earlier this year threatened to destabilize the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Police entered on the order of examining Magistrate Pablo Ruz, and searched for documents and invoices that might provide evidence of off-the-book payments linked to renovation work on the building carried out from 2005 to 2011.
The outcome of the raid was not known, a judicial source said.
Ruz is looking into an alleged slush fund operated by former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas, who has testified to channeling millions of euros of cash donations from construction magnates into the pockets of party leaders.
Rajoy and other PP leaders have denied wrongdoing and have not become direct targets of Ruz’s investigation.
According to court documents, Barcenas hid up to €48 million in Swiss bank accounts. The former Treasurer is in jail pending trial on charges including money laundering and tax fraud in a separate corruption case.
He has also been charged in the slush fund case.
Why has it taken them so long!!!! This should of happened when the story first broke
Really puts great faith in your government. Not.
What a joke. The PP is full of corrupt idiots but even they must have cleared the headquarters out of damning evidence by now. Guess this is what passes for justice in the most corrupt country in Europe.