PP secret accounts man faces anticorruption prosecutor

PP secret accounts man faces anticorruption prosecutor

BÁRCENAS' SECRET PAPERS

PP secret accounts man faces anticorruption prosecutor’s questions

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Luis Bárcenas, the Popular Party’s (PP) embattled former treasurer, began giving a statement to anticorruption prosecutors Wednesday about his knowledge concerning a slush fund that was allegedly used to pay fat bonuses over an 18-year period to the party’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Bárcenas, who purportedly kept secret ledgers listing the amount of money paid out and which have been published over the past week by EL PAÍS, was greeted by an angry crowd, with people shouting “crook,” “thief,” and “return the money, scoundrel” after he emerged from a taxi outside the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office.

He didn’t make any statements to the barrage of reporters and television cameras that had been waiting for him since early morning. His lawyer Alonso Trallero accompanied him.

While various handwriting experts have verified that it is Bárcenas’ handwriting in those ledgers, the former PP accounts man has denied it.

Earlier, former PP congressional deputy José Trías Sagnier who acknowledged in an EL PAÍS column last month that money was regularly handed out in envelopes to leaders throughout the years, was also called to testify before prosecutors. “I have fulfilled my duty,” he told television cameras after he left.

Trías Sagnier told EL PAÍS that money was regularly handed out in envelopes to leaders
Information contained in the ledgers obtained by EL PAÍS shows that Rajoy received 320,000 euros throughout this period.

Anticorruption prosecutors have also called Bárcenas’ predecessor, Álvaro Lapuerta, who served as the party’s chief accountant for nearly 20 years. The 85-year-old former treasurer has also denied paying out any extra bonuses.

According to prosecution sources, investigators will decide before Easter whether to present a case to the High Court.

The entire scandal has had a severe international impact on the Rajoy administration as it strives to reassure investor confidence, and grapple with a lingering recession and high unemployment.

A new poll out by the Center of Sociological Research (CIS) shows a significant drop in the PP’s approval ratings among Spanish voters.

The gap between the PP and the opposition Socialists has closed considerably since Rajoy won the elections in November 2011.The Socialists are now trailing the PP by 4.8 percent compared to the 12.7 percent difference in the last general elections.

The poll was taken between January 4 and 14 before the ledgers’ scandal broke.