Overview
- The court in Madrid heard lengthy recordings on Monday that include José Manuel Villarejo telling a former security official that Luis Bárcenas said he paid “10,000 euritos every month” to a figure investigators call 'El Barbas', identified as Mariano Rajoy.
- Those tapes record Villarejo discussing the Bárcenas driver, Sergio Ríos, known as the 'cocinero', reporting an 'anotación' of fixed receipt amounts and the importance of a computer said to hold relevant material.
- Separate recordings played in court capture Villarejo boasting of favors he did in the Gürtel case and warning he would expose political beneficiaries if he was abandoned, including threats against members of the PP.
- The defense has formally contested the recordings because they were supplied to investigators by entrepreneur Javier Pérez Dolset, who testified he decrypted a file handed to him by a disguised source.
- If admitted as evidence the tapes could deepen ties between Kitchen and probes such as Gürtel and the Pujol inquiries, and the tribunal will next weigh provenance alongside other sworn testimony and documentary proof.