Alex Trelinski
THE National Court in Madrid has scrapped investigations into the president of the Repsol oil company, Antonio Brufau, over industrial spying going back a decade.
Investigating judge, Manuel Garcia-Castellon also threw out probes against ex-Caixabank president Isidro Faine and both entities Caixabank and Repsol.
Garcia-Castellon investigated whether Repsol and Caixabank hired Grupo Cenyt, a security firm belonging to ex-police chief Jose Manuel Villarejo, to spy on the president of construction company Sacyr, Luis del Rivero, in 2011 and 2012.
Villarejo is at the centre of what has been called ‘Operation Tandem’.
He’s been accused of illegally gathering sensitive information about businesses for industrial espionage via phone taps and unauthorised recordings.
In regard to spying on Sacyr, the judge said that his investigation ‘showed without doubt’ that Caixabank and Repsol as ‘a whole’ did not break any laws in their dealings with Grupo Cenyt.
He added that neither Brufau or Faine had any knowledge about commissioning Grupo Cenyt or Manuel Villarejo.
Nevertheless Villarejo and his business partner Rafael Redondo as well as former security chiefs at Caixabank and Repsol will be tried for alleged spying.
Villarejo was arrested in 2017 with an array of high-profile companies linked to his services.
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