2023-12-11 19:07:38
The judge in the Neurona case, Juan José Escalonilla, has rejected the claim of the popular accusation exercised by Vox so that Juan Carlos Monedero, founder of Podemos, would once again be charged in the case and end up sitting on the bench. The magistrate filed the case against Monedero last September in an order in which he left the political party, which was investigated as a legal entity, out of the case.
Vox appealed the judge’s order in reform, that is, so that Escalonilla himself could rectify his decision. The far-right group alleged that there is sufficient evidence against Monedero for his possible criminal responsibility to be resolved in the oral trial phase.
Everything indicates that the Neurona case will be definitively archived and will not go to trial after the instructor himself pointed out the conclusive nature of the expert report that should determine whether Podemos inflated the price it paid to Neurona for consulting work. That report was delivered to the judge this November and it concluded that the political party paid a fair price, and even below what the market governed.
Regarding Monedero, the judge says that he already explained in the appealed order and “in detail” the reasons that rule out rational evidence against Monedero regarding the hiring carried out on February 27, 2019 by the political party Unidas Podemos of the consulting firm Neurona. Consulting CV SA “In this regard, it is necessary to refer to what is stated in said Order to avoid unnecessary repetitions,” adds Escalonilla.
The case directed during these three years by Judge Escalonilla began when José Manuel Calvente, a lawyer expelled from the party amid accusations of sexual harassment that were later unproven, went to the Civil Guard to report a string of accounting irregularities within the party led by Pablo Iglesias at the time. : from bonuses to the existence of a B box within the training, although relying on “rumorology” and the “fear” of other workers to be able to offer more data.
The court opened separate pieces that were later archived. Among them, the one that investigated whether in Podemos’s solidarity fund there was, in reality, an irregular financing system, if there were illegalities in contracts with a Portuguese consulting firm or, among others, if there was an ‘almost babysitter’ due to the presence of charges of the party holding the daughter of Minister Irene Montero and Pablo Iglesias at certain times.
In its appeal, Vox insists on the alleged falsity of an invoice issued by Juan Carlos Monedero to justify the collection of more than 26,000 euros. “In the appealed Order – the judge now resolves – said invoice, the email communication maintained with Andrea Edlin López and the consulting work carried out on his part to conclude indicatively on the authenticity of said invoice, regarding the concept for which it is issued, regardless of the formal defects appreciable in its issuance.”
One of the members of Podemos who still maintains the status of accused, Juanma del Olmo, recently presented a document requesting the definitive archive of the investigation opened three years ago.
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