Walter Finch
MOVE over Pedro Sanchez – there’s a new sheriff in Spain’s corruption town.
The various scandals engulfing the prime minister have for the time being been knocked off the top spot by a new case that has gripped the country.
It has stolen the lime light from messrs Cerdan, Abalos and Koldo – and it may rank as Spain’s biggest corruption scandal ever.
The case centres on former PP finance minister, Cristobal Montoro, who served as the head of the Treasury from 2000 to 2004 and then from 2011 to 2018 under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Montoro is accused of exploiting his role atop the ministry to helm a network that rewrote tax laws to benefit gas companies in exchange for cash in the form of consulting fees.
Prosecutors estimate the scheme delivered a fiscal windfall – and deprived the Treasury – of roughly €2.2 billion in 2012 alone, while five major gas groups are said to have saved at least €51 million over the following decade.
Between 2014 and 2018, a firm owned by Montoro allegedly acted as a go-between for major gas companies and friendly officials in the Treasury Ministry that he was running.
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The parties colluded together to tailor reforms to the tax rules and in return the gas giants paid out around €50 million timed to coincide with each successive legislative tweak.
A judge has now indicted Montoro alongside 27 co-conspirators for ‘influence-peddling’ with the aim of lining their own pockets.
The investigation spans the former minister’s two terms in office, first under José María Aznar and later with Mariano Rajoy, and reaches deep into the heart of Hacienda (the Treasury Ministry).
Among those charged are eight senior ministry officials accused of drafting or approving the legislation, three successive directors general of taxes, and several ex-partners of Montoro’s firm, Equipo Económico who once held government posts.
Prosecutors allege that the gas firms channelled payments through Montoro’s consultancy, with some sums coinciding exactly with the years in which favourable reforms were passed.
Further down the list are construction and renewables firms that also sought faster payments or lighter levies.
The scandal even ensnares the Tax Agency itself.
Diego Martín-Abril and José Alberto García Valera, directors general of taxes in successive periods, face charges for their ‘decisive’ roles, while Óscar del Amo Galán and Rogelio and Santiago Menéndez Menéndez – senior figures in finance, state lotteries and the tax authority – have been removed from office amid allegations of ‘grave abuse’ of public functions.
If convicted, the Montoro case will eclipse all others as Spain’s most sprawling, deeply rooted and financially vast corruption scandal yet.
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