Ábalos's ex-partner admits she never worked at public firms that paid her

Jessica R. walked into Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday visibly shaken, preparing to answer questions about a life that, on paper, looked like one thing and in practice was something else entirely. She had been employed by two public companies under the Transportation Ministry—Ineco and Tragsasec—and received monthly paychecks for two years. She never showed up to work. She never worked remotely. She simply collected the money.

The woman, ex-partner of former minister José Luis Ábalos, was testifying in an investigation led by Judge Leopoldo Puente into whether Ábalos had steered public contracts to favored companies in exchange for kickbacks. Her employment at these firms, investigators believed, was part of a larger pattern: phantom jobs created to funnel money through the state apparatus. She admitted under oath that she had no idea Ineco and Tragsasec were even public companies when she signed on. She learned that only now, in court.

Her account of how she got these positions was straightforward and damning in its simplicity. Joseba García, brother of Ábalos's former adviser Koldo García, had managed the contracts. At Ineco, she was hired as an administrative assistant to Joseba. He told her he would call when he needed her. The call never came. For two years, she collected 1,060 euros monthly. When her contract at Ineco was set to expire in early 2021, a chain of messages passed between her, Ábalos, and Koldo. The minister forwarded her notice to his adviser with a simple instruction: move her somewhere else, then bring her back. Within a week, she was signed to Tragsasec for six months. She acknowledged to the judge that she entered that company directly after this exchange of calls and messages.

The apartment in Madrid's Plaza de España was another piece of the puzzle. Ábalos had told her to stop sharing a house with friends and find a place of her own. She chose this location for its proximity to Ferraz—the Socialist Party headquarters—and to the university where she was studying. She selected apartments she liked and reported back to Ábalos. Koldo García then contacted her, instructing her to meet with "a certain Alberto" during a viewing. That Alberto turned out to be Luis Alberto Escolano, a business partner of the alleged schemer Víctor de Aldama. The apartment cost 88,000 euros over three years. Escolano's company paid most of it. Koldo García, his brother Joseba, and even Joseba's young daughter—who was one year old at the time—also contributed to the rent. When problems arose with the apartment, Escolano was her point of contact. If he didn't respond, she was to tell Koldo.

She testified that she did not know who was actually paying for the apartment, though she imagined it was Ábalos, working through Koldo. The judge also noted that investigators had documented her presence on sixteen official ministerial trips while Ábalos held office—to London, Moscow, Abu Dhabi, and Seville among others. She acknowledged accompanying him on many journeys, explaining that Koldo arranged the logistics and Ábalos reimbursed her afterward.

Her testimony created fractures in the accounts given by others. Ábalos had admitted to a romantic relationship with her but denied involvement in the apartment arrangement, claiming his former adviser had handled it. Koldo García said he had known her for years and asked Escolano for help finding her housing—a place that could also serve as a meeting venue, something she flatly denied ever happened. Koldo distanced himself from her employment contracts, saying his brother Joseba had brought her in as someone he could trust.

Two businessmen called to testify that day—Manuel Sallés and José Ruz—denied allegations made by Aldama that they had paid commissions to Ábalos's circle in exchange for public contracts. Sallés, who ran Instalibero District, had briefly employed Koldo García after he left the ministry in July 2021, paying him over 20,000 euros. Aldama claimed Sallés had paid kickbacks following a 1.8 million euro contract with the postal service. Sallés rejected this. Ruz, who directed Levantina Ingeniería y Construcción, acknowledged knowing Koldo and knowing Ábalos only by sight as fellow Valencians. He denied Aldama's claims but admitted hiring him once to recover a five million euro debt from a Panama business deal, with Aldama taking twenty percent. The contradictions between what Aldama alleged and what witnesses denied suggested the investigation remained tangled, with competing versions of who paid whom and why.