The head of Madrid’s investigative court number 3, María Isabel Durántez, has agreed to open an oral trial against Lieutenant General of the Civil Guard Pedro Vázquez Jarava for the alleged commission of a corruption crime, considering that he received gifts and money from a businessman to whom he had irregularly awarded 120 contracts to renovate structures of various commands. The latter, Ángel Ramón Tejera de León, alias Mon ―whose name also appeared in another corruption case, the so-called Tito Berni case– accused of the same crime. For each of them the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for one year in prison. Both will be tried by a jury at the Provincial Court of Madrid on a date yet to be determined.
When the alleged corruption occurred, General Vázquez Jaraba was deputy director general of Civil Guard Support, one of the most powerful positions within the armed institution in managing the institution’s financial and asset resources. From that position – which he held from October 2015 to January 2018, when he retired – and using his powers, the high command proceeded to decentralize credit so that commands had autonomy to award small work contracts at their facilities. Subsequently, the general contacted those responsible to inform them that he knew an entrepreneur, Tejera de León, who was introducing a new product to the market, projected cork, which would solve the recurring problem of humidity that many barracks suffered on their facades. The heads of the commands of A Coruña, Albacete, Algeciras, Alicante, Ávila, Badajoz, Castellón, Huelva, Jaén, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Valladolid and the Murcia area followed his instructions and entrusted the work to the entrepreneur.
Thanks to this recommendation, three companies of the accused entrepreneur – Canarycork SL, Angrasoscur SL and Solocorcho SL – invoiced various clients for works for an amount exceeding 2.1 million euros, as specified by the judge in his order. In the indictment, presented last December, the Prosecutor’s Office underlined that many of these works were carried out in an “inadequate” way, given that the entrepreneur “did not have the technique to position the projected cap, causing serious damage to the Guardia Civil”. As the Public Prosecutor considers proven, the entrepreneur added a resin to the product which, instead of improving the waterproofness, worsened it.
As compensation for these rewards, Tejera de León allegedly made several gifts to the general, as specified in the court order. Thus, he paid for trips to attend the Champions League football finals played in 2016 and 2017 in Milan (Italy) and Cardiff (UK), as well as two stays with his wife in a hotel in Cadiz and another with the family in Lanzarote with flights included, as well as 45,700 euros in cash with which he would pay for part of a house in Cadiz and part of the cost of a swimming pool cover that the senior command had at his home. in Alpedrete (Madrid). During the investigations, the general always denied that they were “gifts” and assured that he had then paid other expenses of the entrepreneur “to compensate” or that, in the case of the trip to see the football matches, then “they did the math”.
The judge underlines that “there are many reports that contributed to the case, prepared by the Internal Affairs Service of the Civil Guard (responsible for prosecuting crimes committed by agents of the armed institute)”, including “various asset investigation measures carried out in an exhaustive manner” on the two defendants, which recommend the opening of an oral trial for two corruption crimes. Initially the general was also investigated for influence peddling, administrative abuse, falsification of documents and embezzlement.
