José Luis Ábalos receives over 24 years in prison and Koldo García 19 years for corruption linked to mask procurement during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Víctor de Aldama cooperated with prosecutors, leading to a suspended four-and-a-half-year term and community service; he also retains a €3.7 million commission.
The Supreme Court dismissed Aldama's allegation that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was the head of the criminal organisation, citing a lack of evidence.
Aldama's claim that Carlos Moreno, chief of staff to María Jesús Montero, accepted €25,000 for a tax favour was not accepted by the court.
Ester Muñoz (PP) defended the value of collaborating with justice, while Félix Bolaños suggested the PP should include Aldama on its electoral lists.
Cristina Almeida called the treatment of Aldama's cooperation "vergonzante" and described the 24-year sentence for Ábalos as excessive.
The Supreme Court's ruling delivered a crushing verdict for the former minister: José Luis Ábalos received a sentence of over 24 years, and his former advisor Koldo García was handed 19 years. The court found that the criminal organisation operating inside the government had traded on the suffering of Spaniards during the Covid-19 pandemic, using mask contracts to illicitly enrich itself.
“No toda reunión en el despacho de un alto cargo implica un posible delito.”
Víctor de Aldama, the businessman and commission agent who acted as the prosecution's key witness, received a four-and-a-half-year sentence that was immediately suspended. He will instead perform community service and will not have to return the €3.7 million commission he pocketed. The court deemed his cooperation decisive, but several of his claims were shown to be false.
“Me parece que ese sentido de la colaboración con la justicia es un poco vergonzante.”
The court refused to accept Aldama's assertion that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stood at the top of the criminal hierarchy. Aldama had told the court that Sánchez was "en el escalafón uno," but prosecutors found no evidence to support the claim. Similarly, the allegation that Carlos Moreno, then chief of staff to Finance Minister María Jesús Montero, had taken a €25,000 bribe to defer a tax debt was dismissed.
“Si hay una jerarquía, el señor presidente del Gobierno, Pedro Sánchez, está en el escalafón uno.”
PP spokesperson Ester Muñoz praised Aldama for pulling back the curtain, while Justice Minister Félix Bolaños suggested the opposition should put the businessman on its electoral lists. The government insisted that some of Aldama's statements were defamatory lies, and refused to compare him with José Luis Peñas, the former PP councillor who secretly recorded the Gürtel network.
“Yo les propongo que le metan en las próximas listas electorales del PP.”
EL MUNDO characterised the ruling as a "sentencia-marco" that draws a detailed map of the birth of a criminal organisation inside the government and warns that none of the crimes would have been possible without the leadership of the PSOE general secretary. Other pending corruption trials are expected to take this jurisprudence into account.
“Quienes abran la puerta a mangantes como Aldama, verán los tres próximos mundiales en la trena.”
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Spain's Supreme Court has sentenced former transport minister and PSOE heavyweight José Luis Ábalos to more than 24 years in prison for his role in a multimillion-euro mask-procurement scheme, while co-defendant Víctor de Aldama walked free after cooperating with prosecutors.
AI text based on reports by EL MUNDO, eldiario.es and LaSexta. Published .