Tom PowellANOTHER former PP official has been implicated in the ongoing investigation into the secret accounts used for paying top officials kickbacks between 1997 and 2008.
Angel Acebes, party secretary general between 2004 and 2008, will appear at the High Court to answer questions about money taken from the hidden party account to buy shares in online media group Libertad Digital.
Judge Pablo Ruz is investigated whether Acebes oversaw the misuse of funds due to his ‘responsibility regarding awareness and authorisation of the operation’.
It was disgraced former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas who informed the judge last April that Acebes asked him to find businesspeople willing to help buying shares in Libertad Digital.
According to Barcenas, the PP actively participated in the capital expansion of the firm.
His court statements claim that the treasurer at the time, Alvaro Lapuerta, raised funds through entrepreneurs but fell short of expectations.
Lapuerta then contacted Acebes who proposed using money from the PP’s secret slush fund to purchase shares, but in other people’s names.
The Barcenas investigation is just one part of the larger Gurtel case, where kickbacks were traded for bumper government contracts, which has affected many top PP officials.
