Aldama returns to the charge and accuses emissaries of Bolaños and Cerdán of trying to bribe him

Víctor de Aldama has used his response to Félix Bolaños's lawsuit to expand one of his most serious accusations against the Government. The businessman now claims that people linked to the Minister of the Presidency and the then Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, tried to buy his silence when the investigation into the 'Koldo case' began to advance.

The document, advanced by 'ABC', includes names and telephone bills corresponding to several calls made from the phone of Ramón Bermejo, a person of Aldama's trust. A recording, a written message, a transfer, or a specific amount that could prove the alleged offer is still missing. The bills prove that there were calls, but they remain silent about their content.

Aldama presents this documentation before the Court of First Instance number 8 of Madrid, where he must respond to the civil lawsuit filed by Bolaños for violation of his right to honor. The minister is claiming 70,000 euros from him after the businessman publicly stated that he had tried to bribe him to prevent him from continuing to speak about socialist leaders.

Emissaries of Bolaños and Cerdán, according to Aldama

The response places the contacts between March and July 2024, after the first arrests in the 'Koldo case' and during the months in which the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard began to focus on the relationships between Aldama, José Luis Ábalos, and his former advisor.

According to the businessman's version, Bermejo received calls aimed at dissuading him from collaborating with Justice. The alleged agreement would consist of paying him a sum of money to keep silent about information capable of compromising high-ranking officials of the Government and the PSOE.

The document identifies Rafael Oñate, former Chief of Staff of Bolaños, and also mentions other people from the ministerial environment. On the socialist side appear Patricia Gervasio, advisor to the parliamentary group and secretary of Santos Cerdán, and Victoria Luna, linked to the communication of the former socialist leader.

Aldama maintains that these contacts were made at Bolaños's indication and that his interlocutors acted as envoys of the minister. The document also does not provide direct communication in which Bolaños orders the alleged offer to be made, nor does it prove that Cerdán knew or authorized these conversations.

The defense adds that Bermejo informed the president of the PSOE, Cristina Narbona, via a WhatsApp message and that he even met with a lawyer close to the party to finalize the proposal. Aldama also assures that there are other calls that could be obtained through a judicial request to the telephone company.

Nineteen calls without a recorded conversation

The documentation includes twelve communications with a number associated with Congress during the months of March, June, and July 2024. It also incorporates seven other calls made in June and July to a phone number at the federal headquarters of the PSOE on Ferraz street.

This trace allows establishing that the phone used by Bermejo maintained contacts with switchboards or numbers linked to Congress and the party. It remains to be determined who answered, what matters were discussed, and if any of those conversations actually included an economic proposal.

Institutional and party switchboards receive daily calls from workers, journalists, suppliers, and citizens. The existence of a communication with Ferraz or with Congress does not by itself identify its interlocutor nor does it allow attributing its content to the political leadership.

Aldama has not revealed how much money the alleged emissaries would have offered. Nor does his writing include audios, messages, emails, or documents that reflect the conditions of the operation he denounces.

The narrative rests for now on what Bermejo would have told Aldama after having those conversations. It will be the judicial procedure that determines whether the declaration of those involved, the complete records of the operators, and any other evidence capable of clarifying what happened are requested.

From a call from Bolaños to a chain of intermediaries

The new document also introduces a relevant change compared to the businessman's previous public statements. In February, Aldama assured on Telemadrid that Bolaños had contacted his communications manager to offer him "a lot of money" in exchange for his silence. When asked to clarify if the minister had intervened directly, he responded affirmatively. The version now presented to the court shifts the contact towards a chain of people who would have acted as emissaries, without including any call between Bolaños and Bermejo.

Aldama's own relationship with the minister has also varied over time. In November 2024, he stated that Bolaños and Óscar López did not know him "at all" and that they spoke about him based on third-party references. Months later, he went on to accuse the former of personally trying to buy his silence.

His status as a collaborator with Justice has allowed part of the mask plot to be clarified and was decisive for the Supreme Court to suspend his imprisonment after convicting him. This judicial recognition of his collaboration does not automatically turn all his public statements into proven facts.

The accusation against Bolaños did not even appear in the statement Aldama gave before the Supreme Court during the 'Masks case' trial, despite the criminal gravity that an attempted bribery aimed at interfering with his collaboration with the courts would have.

Two dates that Presidency questions

The Ministry of Presidency completely rejects the account and points out two chronological problems. Rafael Oñate stopped directing Bolaños' Cabinet in November 2023, several months before the calls that Aldama places between spring and summer 2024.

The businessman's defense presents him as a former Chief of Staff and maintains that he maintained a personal relationship with the minister. That link alone would not prove that he acted following Bolaños' instructions, an extreme that both the person concerned and the Presidency deny.

The second discrepancy affects Ramón Bermejo. Aldama states that he began to act as his representative and communications manager approximately in March 2024, while government sources place his incorporation in November of that year, after the businessman's release from provisional prison.

Bermejo began to publicly present himself to the media as Aldama's spokesperson in November. The document tries to anticipate this objection by setting the beginning of their professional relationship eight months earlier, although the known documentation does not include a contract or independent proof confirming that date.

The Presidency maintains that Bolaños never spoke with Aldama or Bermejo, nor did he send anyone to offer them money. The minister also recalls that it was the businessman himself who publicly acknowledged that they did not know each other.

It has also been Bolaños himself who has come out to deny these accusations, criticizing 'ABC's exclusive: "Lie upon lie." 

Narbona offers a very different explanation

Cristina Narbona has also denied having received a warning about an alleged bribe. The president of the PSOE assures that Bermejo contacted the party during 2023 to offer his professional services and that he repeated that proposal on several occasions.

According to her version, the last offer occurred a few days before he began working publicly for Aldama. Narbona believes that these work contacts explain the communications with Ferraz and denies that Bermejo transferred information about an illegal operation within the party.

Socialist sources admit that there were some calls with workers from Ferraz and Congress, but they reject the content attributed to them by the defense. They also deny Victoria Luna's participation in the alleged offers.

The spokesperson for the PSOE, Montse Mínguez, has framed the document as part of a "strategy to bring everything down and generate a lot of noise." The party supports Bolaños and maintains that Aldama is once again making accusations without evidence to support his defense.

Bolaños' lawsuit continues

Bolaños filed the lawsuit after Aldama repeated the accusation on television and in different public spaces. In addition to compensation, he requests that the businessman stop disseminating it and that he publish on his social networks the heading and the ruling of a possible favorable judgment for the minister.

The process must resolve whether Aldama can demonstrate a sufficient basis for an accusation of such gravity or whether his statements violated Bolaños' honor. The intervention of the Public Prosecutor's Office responds to the fact that the dispute affects a fundamental right.

The response now incorporates more people and opens the door to new testimonial statements. The court must decide what evidence it admits, whether it requests complete call records, and whether it summons Bermejo, Oñate, the socialist workers mentioned, or Narbona herself before holding the trial.