By Alyssa McMurtry
MADRID (AA) – Luis Barcenas, former treasurer of Spain’s ruling Popular Party (PP), gave his highly-anticipated testimony on Monday at one of biggest corruption trials in Spanish history.
Barcenas, who was PP treasurer between 2008 and 2010, faces 42 years in prison and a fine of nearly €89 million ($94 million) for crimes such as money laundering, tax fraud, forgery and misappropriation of funds.
In Monday’s televised testimony, Barcenas admitted that during his time as treasurer, he managed a secret account linked to Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy’s party, where he would deposit illegal party donations.
The trial, dubbed the Gürtel case, focuses on an illegal scheme in which politicians from the PP allegedly received bribes in exchange for granting construction or events contracts to private companies.
Prosecutors suspect that in many cases, after individual sums were pocketed, the rest would be forwarded to Barcenas or the former PP treasurers and put into an illegal slush fund in Switzerland.
The damage caused by alleged corruption ring has been estimated at €449 million, according to El Pais.
However, Barcenas denied that the money forwarded to him or the previous treasurer came from the alleged mastermind behind the corruption ring – Francisco Correa.
Besides managing secret party accounts, Barcenas also had €48.2 million in personal Swiss bank accounts, which prosecutors claim came in part from personal kickbacks and partly from the slush fund, according to El Pais.
He denied those allegations, saying the money came from art and real estate sales.
Barcenas and the trial have been the source of major headaches for Rajoy and Spain’s ruling party.
In 2013, after the scandal broke, leading Spanish daily El Mundo even published SMS messages allegedly sent from the PM to Barcenas saying, “Luis, be strong”, and asking him to deny the existence of the parallel accounts.
A week after the controversial expose, one million people signed on to a petition calling for Rajoy resignation. However, despite losing the majority in a 2015 election that produced no government, Rajoy became prime minister again as head of a minority government following a 2016 vote.
