BBVA, its executives and their collaborators have been extremely jealous of the information of the internal investigation on Villarejo's contracts in recent months, since the case was in judicial headquarters and under summary secrecy. To the point, the bank has denied the forensic report prepared to the ECB, the supervisory body of the entities in Europe. The lifting of the case occurred last Monday, February 3.
But, apparently, the former president of the entity, Francisco González (FG), did access or know parts or all of the document, either physically or by verbal explanations of the people who were aware of it.
According to the former director of risks and the real estate area of BBVA, Antonio Béjar (the only one of the accused who has collaborated with the National Court to clarify the alleged plot of espionage), Francisco González told him at the end of July that the internal investigation of the Bank did not involve him and, therefore, be “calm.”
Béjar, in his statement, confesses that he had a conversation with his former boss and that he had told him to “calm down, that nothing came out in the forensic that involved me.” He adds that he told him that “the only thing that could have some relevance was the issue of the success bonus, that I didn't worry about the rest and that he would tell the truth.”
His words, according to the recordings contained in the case summary, to which he has had access the Economist, prosecutors show their surprise that Gonzalez had access to the bank's report. Therefore, they ask him if he believed that the former president knew the forensic. Bejar responds emphatically that “he spoke as if he knew him.”
The former director of risks makes these assertions at the National Court two days after he was removed by BBVA from the presidency of his subsidiary District Castellana Noste (DCN), on July 29. This company manages the so-called 'Operation Chamartín' which aims to radically modify the urban planning of northern Madrid with an investment of more than 7,000 million. On July 27, Béjar, who was already charged and had been pointed out by the bank in the data provided by BBVA to the judge, accepted his right not to testify. On the same day of his dismissal from DCN he decided to collaborate with Justice.
“The good are the bad”
The conversation, without much detail, was ratified by FG in his testimony before the magistrate and Anti-Corruption on November 18. He confirmed that he had spoken with Béjar and that “I told him to tell the truth”, in addition to telling him that in all this scandal “it seems that the good are the bad and the bad are the good.”
For any accused of the 'Villarejo-BBVA case', the information collected by the entity for the preparation of the forensic and the conclusions submitted to the National Court was key to its defense.
In the internal investigation, in addition to certain senior executives and employees of BBVA, an external team led by the Garrigues office with the help of Uría Menéndez and the consulting firm PwC have worked. Therefore, González has been able to open all these ways to be able to know the details of the research and evidence found in the analysis of the documentation. The entity, in the internal project called 'Teca / Deep Blue', has reviewed 3,600 boxes with papers to try to clarify the facts.
Of all this work, he has sent to the National Court what he considers relevant. The Prosecutor's Office maintains that its contribution has not been clear or forceful and considers that its collaboration has not been sufficient.
The ECB claimed in June the report to the bank, but the bank indicated that it had to ask the court to be the case under summary secrecy. In September, the supervisory body claimed the document, a fact that was publicly known in December.
