The judge of the National Court investigating BBVA’s assignments to Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo has decided this Monday to summon the current president of the entity, Carlos Torres, to testify as a witness. The appointment is next October 16.
Magistrate Manuel García Castellón thus accepts the request made at the end of July by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in the case related to the hiring of Cenyt, the company of the retired commissioner. The intention of the prosecutors and the investigating judge is to clarify, at first, the quality of the internal controls of the financial entity to prevent the commission of crimes within it, and subsequently the actions of the entity once the scandal of Villarejo’s business saw the light.
The judicial resolution states that Torres’ summons responds to the fact that “it is especially relevant to know whether the corporate control mechanisms” of BBVA worked. And this, continues in reference to the imputation of the entity as a legal entity, “in order to determine the existence of an effective culture of regulatory compliance, in order to clarify its criminal responsibility.”
“It is necessary to summon Torres as a witness, in order to be able to delimit the existence of a true culture of regulatory compliance in the entity that could exempt it from criminal liability,” adds the magistrate.
Torres has been summoned due to the impossibility of obtaining clarifications on these internal control mechanisms from the person who had initially been summoned to do so. This is María Jesús Arribas de Paz, global legal director of the entity. She was the person who reported to the Committee what was being done in the entity.
But Arribas “took advantage of his right not to testify of his own free will.” In principle, witnesses have a legal obligation to testify, but in this case she alleged that she was protected by professional secrecy as a lawyer for the entity. BBVA itself had opposed the summons for that reason.
His resignation opened the door for Torres to be called up. According to the data provided by the bank, he is the one who chairs the Assurance Corporate control committee, the designated body responsible for the criminal liability of the legal entity. “The need to be able to interrogate Carlos Torres is evident,” highlights the judge.
Torres will appear as a witness, that is, without suspicion of a crime weighing on his actions. Although he has presided over the entity since January 2019, when the work with Villarejo had already concluded, Torres had previously held positions of responsibility that reached areas related to contracts, so the possibility of considering him investigated had been on the table.
The judicial resolution agrees to another series of less impactful proceedings than summoning the president of the financial entity. Thus, the magistrate gives the parties appearing in the case five days to appoint an expert, “with express warning that, if they do not do so, their right will decline.”
“Measure that can be adopted to guarantee proportionality and balance between the parties, who cannot be prevented from carrying out a procedure, but who also do not have the possibility of delaying its possible practice,” he argues.
Last June, García Castellón agreed that the different accused persons would appoint their experts so that they would be the ones to access the bank’s internal files that have been selected using keywords due to their relationship with the investigation. The experts will be given two months to examine and prepare a report on the so-called hits.
The investigation into BBVA is number nine of the thirty branches opened after the Tandem operation around Villarejo. In addition to the financial entity and several directors, its former president Francisco González appears as an investigator in the piece.
The judge and Anti-Corruption investigate BBVA’s assignments to Villarejo’s company for different tasks between 2004 and 2017. In total, the entity would have disbursed more than 10 million euros to Cenyt.
Last July, the judge agreed to extend the investigation for another six months, until January 2024.