“The prosecutor’s office, you know, is on the left”

Businessman Luis Medina Abascal is not worried after he was accused of a million-dollar commission he imposed on mask contracts at the worst moment of the pandemic, and also attributed the anti-corruption prosecutor’s investigation to ideological bias in the public ministry. “The prosecution, you know, is all on the left,” he told the LOC after reviewing the court ruling.

Madrid’s 47th court decided on Thursday to launch an investigation into the sale of medical supplies to Medina and her partner, Alberto Luceno, who imposed more than 6 million commissions on the contract. The judge will summon them to testify after the anti-corruption prosecutor filed a complaint against both of them, following an investigation by elDiario.es.

The news explained how two businessmen contacted City Hall in the first weeks of the pandemic, taking advantage of the contact one of them had with the mayor’s cousin, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, to offer medical supplies from China. . In total, there were more than 11 million contracts for masks, tests and gloves that hid $ 6 million in fees for businessmen.

Medina, however, says she has not committed “any violations” in these transactions. “I am committed to international trade, I got sanitary supplies for the Madrid City Council with a friend when it was most needed during a pandemic, I have a perfectly legal contract, I paid for my management. “There are no violations,” he told Locke.

Then he adds: “The prosecutor’s office, you know, is on the left and they act like that. In this case, what are they looking for if my partner and I pay a politician to get contracts. “Nothing, I repeat, I am calm.” According to the newspaper, “Medina herself believes that he was deceived by Luceno” because the latter received “more fees than agreed” and provided him with “false information” when he had to approve payments to the bank.

The prosecution, which, as elDiario.es has shown, has been investigating the case since late 2020, suspects that after they had money in their accounts, they started laundering it: they spent more than four million dollars among them. On expensive cars and watches, even at home and on a yacht.

According to details from the public ministry, Luceno received a total of $ 5.1 million in commission: three million came from a contract to purchase FFP2 masks, the other two from the purchase of antigen tests. In addition, he hid part of these commissions from his partner. For his part, the son of the late Duke of Feria has raised a million dollars from a mask contract.

As the Anti-Corruption found out, Luis Medina spent almost all of the money he received as a commission to pay the City Council the masks for the price of gold. A total of € 725,515 million entered from his Malaysian bank account in Madrid. Of this amount, a total of 325,515 euros was transferred from the Madrid public line to the yacht. The son of the late Duke of Feria bought an Eagle 44, which he named “Feria”, an acquisition that the LOC describes as a “sentimental whim”.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecution also reflects the purchase of two bonds at a cost of 200,000 euros each. One of them was called “Phoenix MSCI World”, which according to Deutsche Bank delivers quarterly profit coupons, and the other was “Global Dividend 10-50”, which according to the same bank pays a coupon of 50 GEL more in the short run. % Of initial investment.