• Anti-Corruption Courts archive the investigation into Ayuso's brother on the purchase of masks

  • Courts Ayuso, outraged that the European Prosecutor's Office also wants to investigate her brother's contract: "The UN has yet to pronounce itself"

The European Fraud Prosecutor's Office has announced this Tuesday that it

has closed the case on the alleged embezzlement of European funds

in the contract to supply 250,000 FFP2-3 masks for 1,512,500 euros in which the brother of the president of the Community participated from Madrid,

Isabel Diaz Ayuso

.

"The procedure has been closed due to insufficient evidence of the commission of a crime," the European Fraud Prosecutor's Office reported in a statement, in which it indicated that the decision was made with the agreement of the Spanish representative in the European Prosecutor's Office, Concepción Sabadell, who was also the former Anti-Corruption Prosecutor in the Gürtel case.

"In particular, it has not been proven that the price paid for the masks was disproportionate given the quality of the material offered and delivered or that it had suffered an undue increase derived from the intervention of people outside the company. Finally, it has been proven that the transportation was paid for by the winning company and not by the Community of Madrid," says the European Public Prosecutor's Office.

During the investigation process, the national prosecutors assigned to this community institution

have taken statements, analyzed and verified documentation

, checked the authenticity of the photographs of the masks delivered, collected reports from the Civil Guard, worked with an expert and requested information from the Tax Agency or the Madrid Health Service of the Community of Madrid (SERMAS).

This case opened, in the spring of 2022, a fracture between the General Prosecutor's Office of the Spanish State and the European one, which disputed jurisdiction over this investigation: the General Prosecutor of the State decided that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office should investigate the contract instead of remitting the investigations to the European Public Prosecutor's Office, which claimed them.

Based in Luxembourg, the European Public Prosecutor's Office considers that it has "preferential jurisdiction" to investigate "all crimes related" to possible fraud against the financial interests of the European Union, and claimed the case to avoid "duplication."

The European Prosecutor's Office requested the investigation of the case before the possible commission of a crime of embezzlement of European funds in that contract, for which

Ayuso's brother received 55,000 euros,

and finally maintained its investigation into the facts that affect the financial interests of the EU but not on the facts that concern the functioning of the Spanish public administration.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Madrid's community

  • Civil Guard

  • Tax agency

  • European Union