Editor’s Note
This article details evidence presented to Spain’s Supreme Court, alleging that luxury gifts for the romantic partners of former minister José Luis Ábalos were financed through the ‘Koldo Plot’ corruption scheme.
Tiffany Jewelry, Business Class Flights, and Spa Hotels: The Luxury Gifts Financed by the Koldo Plot
Messages provided by the Civil Guard to the Supreme Court confirm that the advisor to former minister José Luis Ábalos paid for gifts for the women he was involved with.
Jéssica R. (second from left), former partner of ex-minister José Luis Ábalos, upon her arrival at the Supreme Court on February 27.
Javier Lizón (EFE)
Nuria Morcillo
José Manuel Abad Liñán
Madrid –
A Tiffany bracelet worth 2,450 euros, rose gold earrings worth 1,084 euros, business class flights, stays in five-star hotels with spas, as well as bouquets of flowers, are some of the gifts that Koldo García financed for former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos for the women he was involved with, according to WhatsApp messages that the Civil Guard submitted last week to the Supreme Court as part of a financial report on the former Socialist leader. The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the armed institute highlighted that Ábalos’s former advisor was the “custodian” of his boss’s money and that Ábalos relied on his then-partner, Patricia Úriz, to control expenses and make deposits, transfers, and cash withdrawals; and on his brother Joseba.
On February 10, 2021, Koldo commented with his then-wife that they had to buy flowers for Carolina Perles for “Valentine’s Day”, on behalf of Ábalos. However, before this conversation, the ex-minister’s advisor told Úriz that he also needed to look for “bracelets”, “for the bitch”. “But for the 1, right?”, Úriz asks, referring to one of Ábalos’s ex-partners, Jésica Rodríguez, who also asked if it was a birthday gift.
Koldo García (KG): Bigger. And flat. So a name can be put on it.
PU: There isn’t one in white gold for that price.
KG: Another gold. Or one that costs more.
PU: I haven’t checked if it’s available, to see if you could tell me if this one would work – she asked alongside an attachment of a Tiffany brand bracelet.
KG: Ok.”
According to the files sent to the Supreme Court by the Civil Guard, three days later, Patricia Úriz sent her then-husband an invoice for a bracelet from that luxury brand purchased at El Corte Inglés, costing 2,450 euros, of which 900 euros were paid in cash and another 1,550 euros with the store’s card.
This was not the only piece of jewelry that Koldo García paid for for Jésica Rodríguez, whom the protagonists of this plot refer to as “Spain”, “Princess”, and “Crazy 2”. On June 8, 2019, the former advisor to the ex-Socialist leader asked Úriz to buy some rose gold earrings worth 1,084 euros.
KG: Where it won’t attract attention. Thanks.”
The choice of the type of gold alloy had been previously indicated by Jesica Rodríguez herself, who commented to Koldo García, parallel to the order he was placing with Úriz, that she preferred jewelry that wasn’t silver because she is “very pale”. “I like goldish ones. For dresses, shoes, and things,” she stated.
KG: What are you saying, he seems like a pitbull.
JR: He wants to buy me little things.
KG: If he calms down a bit at that moment. My goodness.
JR: Well… patience and time.”
The messages also include transfers from the plot to Jésica Rodríguez. “Deposit 600 to Spain”, Ábalos ordered his advisor and money manager on November 11, 2019.
Úriz was also the travel agent for the women Ábalos was involved with and the manager of payments for those flights and hotels, always on her husband’s instructions. In March 2019, the plot paid for a Madrid to Palma de Mallorca flight in business class for Jésica Rodríguez for 279.95 euros and later paid for another ticket for 166 euros. A new destination took her to Belgium in May.
For two other women in the plot, Ariadna R. and Carlota S., Koldo García sent them from Málaga to Bilbao that same month, but first verified his boss’s location at that moment: “Where is he?”. His wife, from whom he would later separate, sent him a location at the four-star NH Collection Villa de Bilbao hotel. Ábalos’s advisor, through his wife, paid 449.24 euros for that operation.
Shortly after, on June 20, Úriz again acted as the travel manager for Ábalos’s companions. Koldo García asks her to find the same flight as “us” for Jesica Rodríguez to fly to Santander. In that same message, García shows his wife a photo with the writing of his appointment as a board member of Puertos del Estado. It is the official document, already signed by Ábalos, only lacking the specific day in June 2019 of the appointment.
In March 2021, travel begins for a new woman in Ábalos’s circle, Andrea de la T., who travels round-trip from Málaga to Mallorca, where she will stay in a five-star hotel with a spa, at 145 euros per night. Andrea will travel two months later to Venice from Madrid, in economy class. Shortly after, she takes a flight from Santiago to Málaga. Also in June 2022, she will travel with the ex-minister to Istanbul, where they stayed in a five-star hotel, once again, from the Hilton chain, whose stay cost 871.56 euros for four nights.
