The judge investigates the heritage and travel of the head of the Puigdemont office

Barcelona judge Joaquín Aguirre has ordered the Civil Guard to investigate the assets of the current head of the office of ‘ex-president’ Carles Puigdemont, Josep Lluis Alayin order to determine whether he “illicitly enriched himself” when he was commissioner of international relations of the Barcelona Provincial Council, as his predecessor, Jordi Castells Massana (now in charge of the Generalitat), “apparently did in a very notorious way”, with the approval and finalization of the files of the subsidies granted for development cooperation. The investigations are part of the main piece of the open case for alleged embezzlement of funds and alleged financing of ‘procés’.

According to the sources consulted by this newspaper, the magistrate has also requested the Barcelona Provincial Council to inform him of all trips made by Alay while he was in this institution (between 2015 and 2018, during the time of CiU) and that were in charge of it, as well as the files that support this expense. The investigators suspect that it could be that some of the trips made by the now head of the Puigdemont office were used for other purposes not related to the deputation.

In his order, the judge maintains that in a previous investigation of the patrimony of Castells he was aware of an alleged “illicit enrichment” of the former director of international relations for the Barcelona Provincial Council and who is currently Deputy Director General of Local Cooperation of the Generalitat. The Civil Guard detected that this position had some unjustifiable goodsin his opinion, for his salary, and that could originate from payments made by entities that had received subsidies from the council.

The armed institute discovered income from some of these entities, as well as a significant increase in your account balance and the purchase without mortgage of two houses. All this while he was in charge of the Office of International Cooperation of the council.

In a message on Twitter, Alay reproduced only a part of the judicial order, but not the entire one, and wrote: “The sewer returns. Judge Aguirre wakes up after months and unleashes his persecution against me again. I have never been the head of cooperation You’re welcome. Rotten state.” Only two lawyers in the case had been notified of this order.

The clavaguera returns. The judge Aguirre is awake after mesos and desferma de nou seva persecució of him against me. Mai I have been a cap of beef cooperation.
rotten status pic.twitter.com/tZcmBHRXUA

– Josep Lluís Alay (@josepalay) April 20, 2022

The magistrate, according to the same sources, has also asked the Barcelona Provincial Council to certify the grant tour that are now under suspicion, as well as other data related to these aids. One of the entities that received subsidies is Catmon, an entity of the sovereignist orbit. One of the lines of investigation is whether part of these funds were allocated to the financing of the ‘procés’.

The judge who was in charge of the court for a time while Aguirre was on sick leave filed several pieces about some of these subsidies, with the approval of the prosecutor and the same Barcelona Provincial Council, which, in its day, had detected irregularities in these aids. However, the main cause remains open, where the investigation of Alay and Catmon would be framed.