Pablo Iglesias’ organization used the Neurona company and “several figureheads” to inject funds to Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s party, the digital outlet noted
MEXICO CITY, May 10, 2021 (PROCESO).- According to information published exclusively by the Spanish digital newspaper El Confidencial in November 2019. The Spanish party Podemos, whose head is Pablo Iglesias diverted 308,254 euros to finance Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“The financing scheme of Podemos targets providers of the campaign of the current president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, one of the most prominent leaders of the international populist left,”
According to the investigation carried out by journalists José María Olmo, Beatriz Parera, and Pablo Gabilondo, Iglesias used a company named Neurona, and “several figureheads to inject funds into Morena” and “diverted the money to Mexican political party property of Andrés Manuel López Obrador”. The resources were destined to defray the expenses of two entrepreneurs who provided their Digital Marketing services for Morena.
“The money left Spain and crossed the Atlantic using supposed instrumental companies, figureheads and fictitious contracts,” he said.
These data emerged during the investigation into electoral fraud carried out last July by the head of the Court of Instruction number 42 of Madrid, Juan José Escalonilla, according to the investigation.
In it, the researchers discovered that of the 425 thousand 433 euros paid to Neurona by Podemos and other Spanish leftist political party called “Izquierda Unida”, a total of 308 thousand 254 were automatically transferred to an agency called “Creative Advice” Interactive, based in Mexico.
“The judge tries to determine the reasons for this deviation and if Neurona or Creative Advice actually did some kind of work for Podemos. However, he has just come across a clue that seems to elevate the procedure to another dimension, “he said.
He mentioned that, in his appearance, the administrator of Neurona in Spain, Elías Castejón, agreed to have made a transfer for that amount to Creative Advice by the orders of Germán Cobos, another Mexican lawyer.
“Neurona’s partners told him that he had to obey the instructions of this lawyer (Castejón), despite the fact that it does not appear in any of the communications agency’s documents. Castejón never got to meet Cobos. They only spoke by phone and email, ” he said.
El Confidencial accepted that “sources close to the investigations” confirmed that it is Germán Cobos Pío, a lawyer who precisely shares an office with Eduardo López Hernández, who appears in the contracts signed by Del Olmo.
“The party with which López Obrador won the 2018 federal elections recognizes on its official website (www.morena.si) that it has hired Corporación Cobos y Cobos SC to carry out “strategic consulting services and political ‘marketing’ through digital media” of an electoral type, the same work that Neurona should have provided for Podemos.
“There is another coincidence, Corporación Cobos y Cobos SC appears in a list of registered suppliers in Mexico City. The company registered immediately before, in chronological order, is Neurona, from which it can be deduced that both were registered at the same time ”, he highlighted.
He indicated that the bill paid by Morena to Corporación Cobos y Cobos SC amounts to 348 thousand Mexican pesos, “a modest figure, but one that connects the money from the Iglesias party with the president of Mexico,” he added.
“Investigators suspect that the 308,254 euros diverted could have been used to pay in a covert way, but through the same mercantile companies, other electoral services for the López Obrador political party that were not declared. The invoice would only represent a small percentage of the services actually provided for training. Nor is it ruled out that these businessmen from Morena’s environment had channeled money from Podemos to leaders of the populist left in a third country, ”he suspected.
In any case, Neurona would have operated as a vehicle to move public funds from Spain to López Obrador’s political party Morena.
“It would not be the first scandal to hit the Mexican leader. His own brother is supposed to be under investigation for the collection of alleged bribes and illegal financing of Morena’s campaign. Last August footage was released in which he was seen receiving several envelopes with about 90 thousand euros inside. Likewise, Morena was sanctioned in 2018 for appropriating funds from a trust that aimed to help those affected by the earthquake that struck the country in September 2017, “he added.
What is Neurona?
Neurona is a company that was established in Spain shortly before the generals of 28-A (April 28) and received payments from Podemos and Izquierda Unida worth 425 thousand 443 euros for alleged audiovisual and communication works for the coalition with the that both formations appeared in those elections, United We Can.
The person in charge of signing contracts with Neurona was the Secretary of Communication of Podemos and current Director of Strategy and Communication of the Second Vice Presidency of the Government, Juanma del Olmo.
The representative of the agency who assumed the coordination of the work for Podemos, was Eduardo López Hernández, “a mysterious Mexican lawyer with an office in León (Guanajuato) who never came to travel to the offices that the agency theoretically had in Seville and lacks experience in the world of electoral ‘marketing’ ”, he published.
Source: Proceso
