The National Court judge, Manuel García-Castellón, has ordered former Iberdrola Security Director Antonio Asenjo and Jose Manuel Villarejo to stand trial for multiple illegal orders from the company to the retired commissioner. The judge also considers Iberdrola civilly responsible, allowing for potential claims against its former employee. Additionally, the judge proposes to try Rafael Redondo, Villarejo’s partner in Cenyt company, in the same case.
In the investigation, the president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, and the company were initially implicated. However, charges were later lifted by the judge. Crimes of bribery, discovery and disclosure of secrets, and falsification of commercial documents were proven by the magistrate. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and other parties involved are urged to present their requests for conviction to proceed to trial.
The investigation uncovered that between 2004 and 2011, Antonio Asenjo commissioned several investigations by Jose Manuel Villarejo on behalf of Iberdrola Group. These investigations aimed to gather information about individuals and entities that could benefit the company’s interests. Villarejo’s company received over 1.4 million euros from Iberdrola for these projects.
One significant project was investigating Manuel Pizarro, then-president of Endesa – a competitor of Iberdrola – during Gas Natural’s takeover bid for Endesa in 2005. In this investigation, Asenjo obtained Pizarro’s call records and information about individuals he contacted during Gas Natural’s takeover bid for Endesa in 2005. To conceal the nature of payments and services provided invoices were manipulated to reflect different services thus masking involvement of an active commissioner.
