The Madrid judge in charge of the so-called Neurona case has decreed that the investigation be archived after seeing no crimes in the work that the Mexican consulting firm that gives its name to the procedure carried out for Podemos within the framework of the campaign for the April 2019 general elections. .
“There is no indicative evidence that the cash of the electoral account from which the amount of said contract was paid was diverted for purposes other than those contemplated in the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), for which reason the alleged commission of a crime of misappropriation of electoral funds”, concluded the judge, who has also ruled out that the accounts were falsified.
In an order, the head of the Court of Instruction 42 of Madrid has ordered the provisional dismissal of the case after three years of investigations and after having received the expert report – which he commissioned two years ago – which concludes that the purple party paid Neurona accordingly. at the market price.
Judge Juan José Escalonilla’s decision comes after last September he agreed to archive the investigation he was directing against Podemos – as a legal entity – and against the co-founder of the party Juan Carlos Monedero, considering that it was not possible to attribute criminal responsibility to the political formation. and by verifying that there were no indications that the leader was an intermediary in the 363,000 euro contract that the party signed with Neurona.
Now, the instructor has declared the provisional file regarding the former communications secretary of Podemos Juan Manuel del Olmo; the joint administrators of the Unidas Podemos electoral coalition Daniel Martínez de Frutos and Carlos García; and the Neurona administrator Elías Castejón.
Thus, the case in which the possible simulation of the contract signed by Podemos in February 2019 with the company Neurona Comunidad SL related to the electoral campaign for the general elections of April 2019 comes to an end.
In the order that closes the procedure, the judge recalled that the complaint that gave rise to the investigation indicated that said contract was simulated to cover up the transfers made by the group then led by Pablo Iglesias to the consulting firm “with the purpose to contribute to the payment of electoral campaigns in other countries, or in payment of credits obtained by the party”.
Now, the head of the Court has assured that, once the investigation procedures were carried out in the court, it has been confirmed that “the services object of said contract were provided” by Neurona: workers were hired who moved to Spain during the electoral campaign, and the work that was finally contributed to the procedure was carried out.
The magistrate has reached this conclusion, in part, thanks to the expert report recently provided to the case in which the services provided by Neurona were valued at 358,500 euros, a figure close to the 363,000 euros paid by Podemos.
The report in question took a long time to come because the court spent months looking for a team of experts to take on the task. In fact, in April 2022, given the refusal of the previously appointed expert, the judge sent a letter to the Interprofessional Union of the Community of Madrid and the Association of Professional Colleges of the Community of Madrid to indicate to the Court a “trained expert for the preparation of the report”.
This expert had to evaluate all the services provided by the workers hired by Neurona Consulting: the 48 videos made after strategic segmentation work, the 48 graphic designs made by Waldemar Aguado Butanda and the five images made by Vicente León Camú Astudillo, as well as coverage of seven electoral events.
Finally, the report reached the court and concluded that “beyond personal tastes or the opinion of each individual in relation to the works analyzed”, they complied with “the canons and professional standards in the field of international political communication and the bell design”.
It should be remembered that the Neurona case led to other investigations – such as the so-called Nanny case or the case regarding donations through the 25M Foundation – which were also archived as there were no signs of crimes.
