The Supreme Court confirms Cerdán's provisional imprisonment for his "managerial role" in the alleged construction fraud.

In a ruling, reported by Europa Press, the Court of Appeals rejected the appeal filed by the former Socialist leader against the ruling of the investigating judge on June 30, which ordered his provisional, communicated, and non-bailable detention for possible crimes of membership in a criminal organization, bribery, and influence peddling.

On Tuesday, Cerdán's defense team argued that he is the victim of a "presumption of indecency," ruling out any risk of destruction of evidence that the investigating judge himself could not prevent. Cerdán's defense team held the hearing to examine his appeal seeking to revoke his imprisonment in Madrid's Soto del Real prison.

However, the Court of Appeal agrees with the investigating judge, Leopoldo Puente, that there is a "rational, objective, and thoroughly reasoned" view that there is a "danger that the investigation could be irreparably and seriously harmed by Cerdán's obstructionist actions."

And this, they explain, is because he played a "managerial and controlling role in the criminal activity of the various participants" in the plot, among whom the investigator includes former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and his former ministerial advisor Koldo García, as well as various businessmen.

In this regard, they detail that the conversations recorded by Koldo with the other two defendants reflect that Cerdán "promoted and monitored the company that was to be awarded certain specific projects" and "that he was the one who paid Ábalos and Koldo the money that corresponded to them for the illegally obtained commissions."

"This shows that it was Cerdán who managed and transferred information about the companies that had committed to paying for certain public works and that were to benefit from the final award. He was also apparently aware of and validated the hidden payment mechanisms that were actually used and that remain unknown," they describe.

All of this, they emphasize, "without the investigation having revealed all the companies that ultimately benefited; nor which individuals represented them and maintained contact with the appellant; nor how the payment was handled and the illicitly obtained money was subsequently hidden; nor even whether certain deposits or assets obtained as a result of his criminal activity remain."

Along these lines, they explain that the theory of these possible hidden funds is consistent "with the fact that the total amount of the works awarded to Acciona by agencies dependent on the Ministry of Transport alone amounted to 537,271,005 euros and that a monetary flow of around one million euros has been revealed through these contracts, an amount that, according to forensic experience, the investigator notes is meager in the context of this type of criminal operation."

The judges reason that "a key part of the investigation is aimed at defining all the entities involved and the economic course of the bribes between their payment and their receipt by those who profited from them." "And only he knows the trail and the traces his activities may have left," they emphasize regarding Cerdán.

"Stealth" distributions of "huge amounts" of money

Among the "extensive and powerful" evidence they find, the judges highlight the "set of telephone conversations involving the suspects themselves, which are clearly indicative and confirmatory of the situation under investigation, all of which were found on electronic devices seized during the search of Koldo's home."

They also take into account the analysis of numerous public works contracts awarded by the Ministry of Transport during Ábalos's term through the Highways and Adif departments. They claim that these contracts benefited Acciona, acting in a temporary joint venture (UTE) with smaller companies, thanks to "subjective evaluation criteria that appear to be distorted."

"The circumstantial evidence described alone reveals the nature of the activity that took place, as well as the manner in which it was carried out and how the suspects secretly shared out enormous and unjustified amounts of money, in behavior that only appears consistent with the criminal activity under investigation," they state.

Therefore, they consider that "the appellant's ability to collude with other defendants to build defenses, as well as his ability to destroy documents, create others that could now justify past transactions, collude with witnesses, or even modify the current location of defrauded sums of money that could be under his control or hide them behind companies or front men, amply justify the investigator's caution."

In their opinion, "for all the reasons that have been presented," the risk to Cerdán "is by no means appreciable with the same intensity as that of the rest of the suspects." "The discriminatory treatment that the defense alleges does not exist, since the unequal response to the precautionary measures is based on circumstances that are completely different," they clarify.

They endorse the contract with Servinabar and Koldo's audio recordings

The Court specifically responds to some of the allegations in the appeal, specifically referring to the private contract that would make Cerdán the owner of 45% of Servinabar, one of the companies that allegedly benefited from the scheme.

The judges explain that Puente "does not consider satisfactory the appellant's version that the private contract was made because in 2015 Cerdán was considering abandoning his political activity and received an offer from his friend Joseba Antxon to participate with him in the aforementioned company, which the appellant rejected a week later."

"Neither did the doubt about abandoning political activity require signing the contract until the decision was made, nor is the frustration of the agreement compatible with the contract, once signed, being kept for so long by the person who transferred the shares," they maintain.

Furthermore, they indicate that the fact that it was not recorded in a public deed "does not indicate that ownership was not transferred, since a private contract is binding on the parties who signed it."

"And it would also seem unreasonable to elevate to public record what is merely further evidence of the appellant's interest in having some works awarded to Servinabar," they add.

They also refer to the audio recordings recorded by Koldo between 2018 and 2023, which Cerdán questions. The Court supports them, asserting that "they also offer no indication at this time that they were prepared to falsely implicate the appellant," nor that they could have been partially manipulated by García or the agents who intercepted them.

In any case, they say that Cerdán "did not deny the conversations either, but rather disavowed them using open but consistent statements." Specifically, he stated that he did not recall having had such conversations and that they were incomplete or taken out of context, they recall.