PP admits to wiping data from computer used by ex-treasurer

Two personal computers used by former Popular Party (PP) treasurer Luis Bárcenas are devoid of any relevant information regarding illegal party financing, secret cash bonuses and the other allegations of wrongdoing that are hounding the ruling party.

High Court Judge Pablo Ruz had requested the PP hand over the computers to help with his investigation. But an analysis conducted Thursday morning showed that one of the devices, a Toshiba, lacked its hard drive and contained no relevant information of any kind. As for the second, a Mac, 467 gigabytes of data are being copied to be sent out to all parties involved in the case. But the PP has warned that the hard drive was reformatted when Bárcenas left the party in 2012, allegedly in order to give the computer to a different employee. Any information that might have been stored by the former treasurer has been lost through this procedure.

The PP alleges that this was done “according to the usual protocol for use and recycling of computer material,” and that reformatting is always carried out when equipment has been used by “persons who might have handled sensitive information.”

Bárcenas, who is being held in jail while the investigation progresses, has confessed to the courts that he paid cash bonuses to the entire PP leadership, including the current prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.