Judge shames former PSOE manager’s inaction on cash payments, saying there were “no controls in place to prevent money laundering”

Judge Leopoldo Puente, in charge of telephone investigation Avalos incidentasked him very persistently about the regulations applied by the Party. Cash payments to senior officials and workers.

All this ultimately confirmed their apparent absence, and the magistrate warned Mr. Moreno that this method could facilitate money laundering.

Moreno, who coached from 2017 to 2024, unsuccessfully tried to justify this approach. But Puente believes that if PSOE management Failed to substantiate the veracity of expenses incurred by senior officials -invoice they wanted the party to reinstate them— May support the “laundering” of “money of illegal origin.”

“Was it within its function to control that payments were made for authorized purposes?” the judge asked. “Yes, it is,” the former manager admitted.

“The Secretariat should have verified whether the costs were borne by the claimant, right?” asked the judge.

“Okay, then…” The witness hesitated. “The validation done in management is that all tickets and invoices are in the format they should be, and that the expenses are covered…CIF, form of payment. Basically, they are meals, breakfast…maybe hotels, gas, mileage in some cases,” he explained.

“At the time of the meal, did anyone verify that the person who presented the bill was the one who paid for it? (…) Is it possible for someone to receive a ticket from a restaurant? A ticket that may have been paid for by a family member, friend, neighbor… or did they come across it by chance and donate it? Is that possible, or is that excluded?” the judge asked.

“Dismiss it, throw it away…it seems strange to me that something like that could happen,” Moreno defended. “But controls in an organization are about making sure weird things don’t happen.”criticized the judge.

“At the time, it wasn’t proven,” the witness eventually admitted. “There was even no proof that the person who wanted the restaurant bill back paid it? Was that even not proven?” the judge asked again.

“It wasn’t proven at the time,” the former coach said. “When you say ‘that moment,’ what moment are you referring to?” The judge was interested. Moreno responded, “It is during my term of office (from 2017 to 2024).”

The judge was surprised and asked the witness to explain “what” the management of these expenses incurred at his expense was. “If you didn’t even check who paid for the tickets you provided…just throw in the CIF, etc.,” the judge said. “It’s not verification, it’s not any kind of control,” Puente added.

“You wouldn’t say this is a management system. For me to put in an instance of ‘March 17th meal’ and then present a ticket from March 17th…come on. If that’s not the case, that’s kind of weird,” the judge charged.

Moreno also admitted that he had no way of knowing that those who received income from the PSOE were making expenditures. Especially since there were refunds jointly paid to party departments, as in the case of the Organizing Secretariat, which José Luis Ábalos led until 2021.

“If you have a group of people who paid for the costs and they are not identified, you cannot know whether that money went to the people who paid for the costs. Was there any way to know that?” the judge asked.

“I had no choice,” Moreno admitted when forced to tell the truth as a witness. “That cost was approved by the organization secretary (…) and they were responsible for distributing it within the team. I understand that,” he explained.

“Really?” argued the judge. “I think so. I’ve never seen it,” the former manager admitted.

Update news

We are working to expand this information. In the near future, the editorial staff of EL ESPAÑOL will provide you with an update of all data related to this news.

To receive the latest news on your mobile phone, you can not only download our newspaper application for iOS and Android devices, but also subscribe to access all exclusive content, receive newsletters and enjoy subscriber-only Ñ Zone.