The businessman Víctor de Aldama has assured in his statement as accused before the Tribunal Supremo that in his conversations with Koldo García they used nicknames to refer to high-ranking government officials. As he has explained, president Pedro Sánchez they called “the one”, while the then Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos they referred to as “the boss”.
During his intervention, Aldama clarified that these terms did not imply any organized structure, but rather responded to a matter of hierarchy. “We have always referred to Ábalos as the boss but as a matter of respect,” he stated, adding that something similar happened with Sánchez: “Since we called the president ‘the one’, that is, he is the president, well, he is ‘the one’”.
The businessman has also recounted a particularly controversial episode that occurred in Mexico. According to his testimony, Koldo García asked him to organize a meeting with women for the then minister. “We have to organize something for the boss so he can relax”, he would have told him, specifying later: “We have to find some young ladies and introduce them to the boss”.
Aldama has assured that he acceded to the request and that it was a specific event. “First and only time that I pay for the ladies to Mr. Ábalos”, he affirmed before the court, emphasizing that a similar situation did not happen again. According to his account, the meeting took place after contacting people in Mexico who facilitated the presence of those women.
In his statement, the businessman has also described the closeness between Koldo García and the President of the Government. He recalled an episode at a PSOE rally in Madrid, during the candidacy of Pepu Hernández, where he was surprised by the treatment between the two. “I ask him: How do you refer to the president as Pedro?” he explained.
According to Aldama, Koldo's response was forceful: “Víctor, the day the president tells me that I have to call him president, I stop being in the party and I leave here”. A phrase that, according to the businessman, evidenced the trust between them.
Furthermore, he assured that Koldo came to affirm about Sánchez that “he owes me a lot and he knows why”, a statement that, according to Aldama, surprised him and reinforced his perception of the close relationship between the two.
