“We gave the same treatment to Luis Medina's mail as another thousand”
The first session of the trial for the alleged scam of the masks of Luis Medina and Alberto Luceño has focused on the way both commission agreed to the Madrid City Council. One of the key people in this procedure was Matilde García Duarte, then general coordinator of the Consistory and right hand of José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who has repeated that the offer of the Duke's son of the Fair received the same treatment as another thousand that arrived by those dates.
Luis Medina obtained the contact of Carlos Martínez-Almeida through an old teacher. The mayor's cousin, who will also declare at the trial, asked his friend García Duarte and this never told his boss, according to José Luis Martínez-Almeida since Eldiario.es revealed the case on March 31, 2022. Matilde García Duarte has defended Tuesday that Luis Medina did not have a preferred treatment although he admitted that he spoke with him on the phone and did not clarify if he did it with the rest of those “1,200 offers,” as he said at another time.
“An email was received on March 18, 2020. I was not aware because they referred to many emails but I received another call from Carlos Martínez Almeida who says that this person has sent an email. I contacted Luis Medina to clarify what kind of offer or donation did. It was clear that it was a sale, an onerous offer. He sent me an email giving me more information, ”said García Duarte, who now works in the private company.
The mayor's name has not appeared during the two statements of witnesses today. Before, in previous issues, the Court had rejected the requests of popular accusations to declare Almeida and Engracia Hidalgo, delegate of Economics of the Consistory. Despite the gratitude Almeida had with the alleged scammers, as they commented on messages that are exchanged, the court considered that neither his person in charge of economics “are linked to the facts”, and has dismissed the petition.
In one of those messages, Medina tells his partner that García Duarte has called “on the part of the mayor” to advance that Martínez-Elemeida would contact him to thank him for the sale of the material that is being judged. “On the part of the mayor I don't believe it. When the mayor wants to call, he calls. I have been four and a half years [como coordinadora general] And I don't remember calling someone from the mayor, ”said García Duarte during the trial.
The witness has denied that Carlos Martínez-Almeida's call informing her that Luis Medina had sanitary material in the worst days of the pandemic would take her differently than if another person had told her something similar in moments of so much need. He has also said that he did not know Medina and that he did not know who he was. He explained that he told the mayor's cousin to give him the generic mail that had been publicized as the point of contact with the City Council to donate or sell health material.
Almeida's right hand has justified his call to Luis Medina to clarify whether what he was going to do with his partner was a donation or a sale and that in that call it was clear that it was the second. However, once that filter was overcome and went to Elena Collado, responsible for purchases of the Consistory, the version is another. It records how Elena Collado writes an email, whose recipients are García Duarte, ensuring that Medina and Luceño do not charge commissions and that “several medals” should be given. The former general coordinator said Tuesday at the trial that she did not read the emails in a copy.
“My obligation as a Spanish was to move it”
Before she has declared María García de la Cebosa, director of the Private University where Luis Medina studied and the commissioner called, as she said, looking for contacts in the Community of Madrid and the City Council. Not so in the central government, of different political sign. It has not been clear why he thought of Carlos Martínez-Almeida, has only suggested that there were two people, commissioner and cousin of the mayor, who wanted to help. “My obligation as a person and as a Spanish was to move it. And the same happened to Carlos, ”said García de la Cebosa.
In the process of previous issues it has been clear that one of the attractions of life, the statement of the Malaysian provider San Chin Choon, will not occur because the court has summoned it to travel to Spain and has not even been located. Luceño's defense has asked to give a statement from the embassy, but the court has replied that this is not a recognized channel and added that it is not “essential.”
The commission agencies that the 11 million euros left one account from the City Council to another of the company Leno, owned by San Chin Chon. And that his commission was from that bad account to theirs, so the commission was agreed between Medina and Luceño and the supplier and, therefore, there is no scam. Luceño faces 15 years in jail for aggravated fraud, falsification of public document, falsification of a private document and tax crime. In the case of Medina, the penalty that anti -corruption asks is reduced to nine years due to the aggravated scam and the falsification of a private document.
