• Summary: Key testimony in the 'BBVA case': former manager Béjar involves Francisco González in the hiring of Villarejo

BBVA commissioned Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to sabotage the takeover of the entity by Sacyr Vallehermoso , then directed by Luis del Rivero. The order transferred to the commissioner was to "contact the shareholders" of the construction company "contrary to the operation" against the bank "in order to convince them to act in favor of Francisco González, then president of the financial institution. This follows from a document prepared by the incarcerated police officer that the investigators intervened in one of the records and that appears in the summary piece of the Tandem case focused on the links between Villarejo and the bank.

The document, called "Project FG" , starts by stating that the "essential" objective of the work is to "boycott the planned actions" against the entity, "annulling the maneuvers" of what he calls GH, the "hostile group" in which would be Del Rivero and, on the political side, the then head of the Economic Office of La Moncloa Miguel Sebastián . It was intended "to seek the abandonment of the harassment plan against FG".

The document indicates that the BBVA legal department "only wanted" to contact Sacyr shareholders willing to side with the bank. However, Villarejo indicates that he has "added" objectives to the operation: "It was considered crucial to use as much energy as possible to find pressure elements against the different members of the GH to force them to flee."

Next, the document goes on to offer an exhaustive list of actions carried out in the operation: communications control, surveillance, trips through Spain and abroad, approximations to judges, meetings with members of the intelligence services, Spanish and foreigners, with economic specialist, with journalists, document analysis, disinformation actions, reporting ...

Due to its content, the document seems aimed at communicating to BBVA the scope of the works that were going to be billed. That "FG Project" was according to the researchers the entry into the BBVA of Villarejo and its societies. The relationship would extend for more than a decade and he reported to the investigated police a turnover of 10.2 million euros.

The "synopsis" report of all the tasks details that of the more than 16,000 communications studied, almost 10,000 were "made from any of the mobiles detected" to members of the hostile group. And that 869 correspond to "intercepted conversations", that is, not only is their existence, duration and contact number known, but the content of the conversation can be accessed. "Only relevant only 5%," says the report. Among them are conversations by Miguel Sebastián, Carlos Arenillas (vice president of the CNMV), the financier Juan Abelló, Luis del Rivero and Emilio Botín.

It is also indicated that there were 14 attempts to intercept Sebastian's cell phone, which caused the CNI's warning and that the affected party expressed his concern to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The catalog of activities includes a meeting with the head of Security of the president of Santander to let him know that if he stopped supporting the operation against FG, harmful information against Botín would also cease.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Big Brother
  • José Manuel Villarejo
  • Santander
  • José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
  • Spain
  • Emilio Botín
  • economy

Companies Economic and labor uncertainty plunges the confidence of SMEs to their worst level in four years

Economy The Villarejo case extends over the Ibex

Energy The Businessmen's Circle asks for an environmental taxation that is not "merely collection"