CORRUPTION
Popular Party paid for refit of Madrid headquarters in black money, says judge
Slush fund run by ex-treasurer Luis Bárcenas thought to have paid out a million euros for work
High Court Judge Pablo Ruz, who is probing the accounts kept by former treasurer Luis Bárcenas allegedly detailing a parallel accounting system within the Popular Party (PP), suspects that it paid almost a million euros in undeclared cash to refurbish its Madrid headquarters in 2008.
Ruz last Friday ordered a search of the Madrid offices of architect Gonzalo Urquijo after concluding that payments detailed in Bárcenas' ledgers of 880,000 euros that were never declared constitutes tax fraud above the 120,000-euro limit, after which criminal prosecution is a possibility.
On July 15 Bárcenas testified that it was the party's decision to pay Urquijo under the counter: "We had more black money than legitimate funds," he said at the time.