Aldama disassociated Begoña Gómez from the Air Europa bailout in an audio recording sent to Koldo García: "Nothing true."

The alleged fixer in the Koldo case, Víctor de Aldama , disassociated Begoña Gómez , the wife of the Prime Minister, from the rescue of the airline Air Europa during the pandemic. "Nothing true," the accused businessman told then-ministerial advisor Koldo García.

He did so in an audio recording sent to García, which is included in the case file and to which Europa Press has had access, in which the businessman under investigation does admit that there was pressure on the then Ministers of Transport and Economy, José Luis Ábalos and Nadia Calviño , respectively, as well as on the current Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero .

"Regarding what you're telling me about Air Europa, that they want to link the Air Europa operation, that there has been pressure from Begoña and such, it's not true at all ," Aldama told the former advisor.

The businessman emphasized that the rescue "operation" had been underway "since March or April" of 2020 and was completed " in November ."

"All legal"

"SEPI has reviewed it down to the last detail, and SEPI has hired PWC, an external auditor, to also provide approval so they don't get caught in the act, and they've also given their approval and said that everything was legal ," he emphasized in the audio.

And he praised what the family that owns Air Europa had done: "Pepe Hidalgo has provided all his guarantees, he has provided the hotels, he has provided absolutely everything. What's so strange about this operation, or where is the possibility that there was pressure? "

"Of course, there has been pressure, but there has been pressure on Minister Calviño, there has been pressure on Minister Montero, there has been pressure on Minister Ábalos, there has been pressure on everyone, because, as has been said, it is a strategic company and, if the loan was not granted, the company would close and 50,000 people would be out on the street ," De Aldama told him.

"Quite overwhelmed" at Globalia

The alleged fixer told Ábalos's then-advisor that he had been called by Globalia, the company that includes the airline, because they were concerned about press reports pointing to Pedro Sánchez's wife and that business group.

"Yesterday, Lisandro Marque, the institutional relations officer for Globalia, called me. He told me they were pretty overwhelmed" after being notified that a media outlet wanted to "publish a story about Wakalua , the company that handles all the startup and new technology issues in conjunction with Begoña, the president's wife," he explained.

Aldama explained to García that Sánchez's wife "works at the IE and is in charge of the whole Africa issue": "And Wakalua has developed two startups that came from the competition held in Africa and with the people Begoña brought in, as if there had been some strange financing there or if Begoña was involved or something like that."

The businessman criticized the fact that there were journalists " looking for shit and had nothing to do with the Air Europa issue or the company, only with Wakalua, which belongs to Globalia."

" Begoña has indeed been to the Globalia headquarters in Pozuelo several times , but always for the Wakalua issue, just like when she came to St. Petersburg with the UNWTO and we met with the UNWTO and Wakalua. Javier (Hidalgo) was there, along with her, me, and another person called Leticia, but always for the Wakalua issue," he added.