The businesswoman Carmen Pano, collaborator of Víctor de Aldama, has testified in the Supreme Court as a witness in the case investigating former minister José Luis Ábalos for corruption offenses. Pano reaffirmed that she carried 90,000 euros in bags to the PSOE headquarters on Calle Ferraz.
According to legal sources, Pano claimed before the instructor Leopoldo Puente who was the person who took her there on behalf of Aldama and Claudio Rivas, a partner of the former. Rivas, Aldama, and Pano are being investigated by the National Court for their alleged involvement in a VAT fraud scheme concerning hydrocarbons amounting to up to 182.5 million euros, according to Anti-Corruption. That person would be Álvaro Gallego.
"With the money I took to Ferraz, Claudio Rivas was seeking for his company, Villafuel, to obtain an operating license," Pano stated in an interview with 'The Objective'.
In addition to the hydrocarbons business, Rivas shared other business ventures with Aldama, such as managing the restaurants at the Cuatro Torres in Madrid.
Have Got Time, a company managed by Pano's daughter, Leonor González Pano, has also been summoned as a witness by Supreme Court magistrate Leopoldo Puente. The company was tasked with managing the chalet in La Alcaidesa, in Cádiz, which is being investigated in the High Court for allegedly having been made available to Ábalos by Aldama.
This would have been the first business where Aldama came into contact with Rivas out of necessity for liquidity. For the instructor, this is one of the criminal indications against the former minister and deputy for the alleged receipt of illegal commissions.
