The Supreme Court has ratified the ruling of the Provincial Court of Álava on 17 December 2019 in the De Miguel case, the most serious case of historical corruption in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, which occurred within the PNV. He has sentenced Alfredo De Miguel to twelve years and four months in prison, Koldo Otxandiano to seven years and six months, and Aitor Tellería to five years in prison.

Alfredo de Miguel was a former member of the Araba Buru Batzar of the PNV and a member of Álava from 2007 to 2010; Koldo Otxandiano is a former member of ABB; and Aitor Telleria, a member of the ABB and an observer of movements in this whole issue.

Conduct of the trial

The most striking feature of the sessions was the statement by the chief witness: the entrepreneur Ainhoa Alberdi. It was he who discovered the case in 2009. Alfredo de Miguel and Aitor Telleria denounced that they had requested a commission of 100,000 euros for the award of the works of expansion of the technological park of Miñano to their company Urbanorma Consulting, and to prove it facilitated the prosecutor of Álava some recordings of interviews. In them you can hear Jon Iñaki Etxaburu, former partner of Alberdi and Alavés entrepreneur of public works, saying that the commission was “within the normal”, a phrase that serves to detect what kind of conduct are open. In this sense, another 700,000 euros in commissions, 16 million euros in irregular operations and 65 million euros in a sterile urban operation.

“What are we going to do with this fool?” asked by e-mail Alfonso Arriola, Miñano’s manager, when Alberdi passed the bill for the works carried out. The businessman also denounced the attempted extortion, as by refusing to pay the commission they turned to his father, Juan Antonio Alberdi, a member of the PNV, to ask for money. From there, moreover, the witness states that he had “veto” in other works.

On the other hand, a garnet notebook found by the Ertzainas in a cell in the house of Koldo Otxandiano was essential to know how the supposed commissions were charged. In the papers quadriculated with the coat of arms of the General Boards of Álava, the former member of ABB pointed hand-in-hand to what could be paid to the companies: you can read “Work 4% Kataia”, indicating that one of the pseudoenterprises of Kataia Consulting De Miguel had to collect this award percentage in black.

Another fraud mechanism was the collection of works not executed by the Department of Youth of the Basque Government, for a total amount of EUR 210,000. Apparently, the companies Kataia, Errexal and Ortzi Muga were awarded “à la carte” by the director of Youth, Xabier Sánchez Robles (PNV).

For more information, here is the report by Urko Apaolaza, journalist of ARGIA, on June 17, 2018, at the Provincial Hearing of Álava.