Judge believes former PP mayor received more than €500,000 from Gürtel ring

The judge investigating the Gürtel kickbacks-for-contracts scandal believes that the former Popular Party mayor Jesús Sepúlveda, the estranged husband of Health Minister Ana Mato, received more than 500,000 euros in cash commissions, free trips and gifts from the Gürtel corruption ring for awarding it public contracts.

Mato remained married to Sepúlveda during part of the period in which the former mayor of the upmarket Madrid dormitory town of Pozuelo de Alarcón allegedly received the bribes. Mato has denied any wrongdoing and has ignored calls from the opposition to stand down.

Sepúlveda was forced to resign as mayor of Pozuelo in 2009 because of his implication in the Gürtel case. He returned to work as an employee of the PP, but was recently dismissed after the Bárcenas corruption case broke. Bárcenas, who has also been implicated in the Gürtel case, was the treasurer of the PP, and allegedly kept secret ledgers – copies of which were obtained by EL PAÍS – in which illegal donations to the party are noted as well as dubious cash payments to PP officials.

In a judicial statement based in part on a police report, Judge Pablo Ruz identifies new information on commissions paid to Sepúlveda as well as a series of trips for both him and his wife supposedly paid for by the Gürtel ring.

The report alleges Sepúlveda received cash sums in envelopes from the ring “practically on a monthly basis

The report also details luxury parties organized and paid for by the ring for the Sepúlveda-Mato family worth some 50,000 euros in the period 2000-2004, as well as cash from the Gürtel organization as a “form of payment for public contracts that had been irregularly awarded.” Mato and Sepúlveda did not legally separate until 2005.

Cash payments to Sepúlveda were made from February 2002 until the end of 2004, while parties and other events organized and paid for by the ring took place in the period 2001-2005.

“The payments and gifts for the formally implicated Mr Sepúlveda appear to be a circumstantial link with the award of contracts irregularly made by the town hall of Pozuelo, both of public works and the organization of events,” Ruz’s report reads.

The report alleges Sepúlveda received cash sums in envelopes from the ring “practically on a monthly basis that ranged from 3,000 euros between February 2002 and the end of 2004, totaling 255,000 euros. The former mayor received an additional 144,000 in the period 2002-2003.

Sepúlveda is also alleged to have been given a Range Rover vehicle valued at 83,000 euros.