The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has opened investigations into a total of seven contracts to obtain medical supplies in the midst of a pandemic that were awarded by the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the Community of Madrid to two companies for more than 17 million euros, seeing indications that there could be an extra cost that would result in alleged crimes of fraud and fraud. At the moment there are no defendants.
The body investigates several contracts awarded by the Community of Madrid to buy medical supplies in 2020 from two companies completely unrelated to the health sector, according to Eldiario.es. Specifically, it agrees to investigate, through two decrees dated June 3, a complaint filed last April by the United We Can parliamentary group in the Madrid Assembly pointing to possible irregularities in the contracts granted to the Vindoré 24k companies. and Air Global Media.
Vindoré, dedicated to the marketing of sparkling wines to which gold particles are added, would have been awarded from the CAM three contracts between March and April 2020 for a total of 7,740,000 euros to obtain surgical care material, protection individual and cures to supply pavilion number 10 of IFEMA, where a field hospital for covid patients was installed, reports Europa Press.
In the case of Air Global Media, which would have broadcasting as its main activity, it would have obtained four contracts between May and June 2020 for the acquisition of surgical care material and dressings, masks and overalls, both for the IFEMA hospital and for the health centers dependent on the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS), for a total of 10,060,500.
In both cases, the contracts would have been processed through the emergency procedure, the contracting body would have been the SERMAS, and the managing body would have been the central bodies and the sub-directorate general for the management of European FEDER funds.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has assumed responsibility for these investigations because, after initial checks, it has determined that the seven contracts were fed by European funds, while at the same time it has seen signs of “an artificial price increase” that could constitute crimes of fraud and scam.
United We Can detailed in its complaint, collected by the EPPO, that Vindoré would have obtained “excessive” profits, taking into account the provisioning item and, in particular, that referring to “other operating expenses”, which would amount to 10,772,635 euros.
Although it is not excluded that a part of said payments could correspond to transportation payments, the complaint explains that CAM would have paid for the chartering of flights with sanitary protection material that could refer to the material supplied by Vindoré, adding that in any case the cost of transport would not be for an amount as high as 10 million euros.
Regarding Air Global, it indicated that it would have multiplied its turnover almost 50 times during the state of alarm, warning that it could have been used as an instrumental company to receive emergency contracts and hide the distribution of millionaire commission payments.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office states that, once these investigations have begun, it will focus on “verifying the facts and specifying possible indications of the commission of criminal acts, whose contours appear at this moment diffuse, without the availability of elements that determine at this procedural moment the specific accusation of no person”.
The spokesman for the Popular Parliamentary Group in the Madrid Assembly, Pedro Muñoz Abrines, recalled today that the Public Prosecutor’s Office “is obliged as a matter of priority to accept for processing everything that is presented to it” and has been convinced that the Ministry’s investigation European public on the Covid contracts of the Community of Madrid “will come to nothing”.
According to ‘Eldiario.es’, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into
In statements to the media before attending the plenary session of the Assembly, the PP spokesman recalled that it is “an idea on the part” and, although he said he did not want to assess the complaint more carefully until he knew its content, he recalled that “Throughout the recent history of this Community, all the complaints filed by the left against the Community of Madrid end up being archived”.
He recalled that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has also opened investigative proceedings to analyze the emergency contracts of the Government of Pedro Sánchez that were included in the complaint presented by the Popular Parliamentary Group in the Madrid Assembly in relation to up to 13 contracts worth more than €320 million.
“What we do want to see is that same European Prosecutor’s Office acting with the same diligence with the contracts that we denounced before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which are not minor contracts but amount to 300 million euros and where there is really a damage real for public assets because these are contracts in which the price was paid, the price was advanced, the material was not collected and the money has not been recovered”, he alleged.
