The UCO supports the alleged commission agent work of Rita Barberá's brother-in-law

The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has supported in a new report its thesis that the lawyer and brother-in-law of the former mayor of Valencia Rita Barberá, José María Corbín, could have received around 1.7 million euros in commissions illicit for the contract awarded to Acciona for the sanitation of the capital's water.

In a new report sent to the Investigating Court number 13, which is investigating the macro-cause known as Azud, the UCO details the payments made by the Acciona group to the Elum Abogados company and how those funds finally ended up in the hands of the brother-in-law of the then mayoress.

In this case, the alleged commission of various public crimes related to corruption has been investigated, which affect both leaders of the PP and the PSPV, and among the different lines of investigation is the one related to the alleged payment of commissions of an illegal nature to the law firms Elum and Corbín by the company Acciona Agua SA.

In the aforementioned report, to which EFE has had access, the Civil Guard concludes that Acciona transferred to the lawyer Diego Elum its “business claims” referred to the aforementioned contract, which the Consistory tendered in April 2006 for 129 million euros. “Within that business group, Diego Elum was linked to members of the City Council, more specifically with the one who at that time held the position of mayor Rita Barberá”. The researchers believe that this is “coherent and related” to the fact that the observed economic flow goes from Diego Elum to José María Corbín, Barberá's brother-in-law.

“Infilco España (later Acciona Aguas) was one of the potential bidders and the company that at that time provided the service. Fifteen days after the tender, it signs a service provision contract with Diego Elum's office and sets a price of 2.56 million euros, approximately 2% of the tender amount.”

In this context, the Civil Guard considers it especially relevant that Corbín, the ultimate recipient of the funds paid by Acciona, was the brother-in-law of Rita Barberá (PP) who at that time held the Mayor's Office of the Valencia City Council.. According to the aforementioned UCO report, Elum, in his judicial statement as a detainee, said that Corbín offered to help to obtain the contract and that he demanded two thirds of his fees, that is, 1.7 million euros.. He also said that if Corbín had not been Rita Barberá's brother-in-law “neither Corbín would have raised that agreement nor would the declarant have spoken with Corbín about the commitment he had acquired with Acciona.”

Gifts to the mayor

After Acciona Aguas was successfully awarded the sanitation contract for 129 million euros, between May 21, 2007 and February 2, 2009, this company paid a total of 2.56 million euros in five transfers to the Elum office , which, immediately afterwards, transferred two thirds of those funds to Corbín Abogados.

The UCO also highlights in its report that these alleged bribes were not paid by Acciona, but that this firm passed them on to the winning joint venture in five invoices with the concept “bidding expenses”, whose amounts coincide exactly with the amount initially invoiced. by Elum's office.

The payments made by Elum to Corbín “are part of a fictitious billing process, articulated for the sole purpose of giving the appearance of legality to the movements of funds”, and Elum himself declared, as reflected in the report of the Guard Civil, that “there was never any report, no opinion or any activity on the part of Corbín Abogados.”

In another section of the report, the UCO refers to the Christmas gifts (luxury items) that Acciona made between 2004 and 2008 to various members of the corporation led by Rita Barberá, including councilors Alfonso Grau, Silvestre Senent and Ramón Isidro.. Among the gifts Barberá received included a Louis Vuitton bag, handkerchiefs or purses from well-known brands whose amount amounts to about 8,000 euros in the aforementioned period.