Prosecutors widen Spain graft probe

Barcenas, under investigation for corruption, is followed by reporters as he leaves his residence in Madrid.DPA/MadridInvestigating prosecutors in Spain said yesterday that they planned to question the alleged creator of secret accounting documents in a huge kickbacks scandal that is rocking the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.The papers, which were published by daily El Pais, point to secret payments from companies to Rajoy and other leaders of his People’s Party (PP, Partido Popular, also translated as Popular Party) over the course of nearly two decades.El Pais attributed the documents to former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas, who had already been under investigation for corruption.The PP denies the authenticity of the documents and the existence of parallel accounting.Barcenas said yesterday that the handwriting in the documents is not his and suspects an “operation to harass and topple the party, and especially Mariano Rajoy”.Anti-corruption prosecutors investigating the case plan to question Barcenas today. They are also due to hear Jorge Trias, a former PP legislator who has said that party leaders received “envelopes with money”.El Pais, meanwhile, handed the secret papers over to the police. The daily agreed to do so upon condition of not revealing who had allowed it to access the documents, its director, Javier Moreno, said.Prosecutors are also planning to investigate whether Barcenas used a controversial fiscal amnesty to legalise about half of a fortune, worth 22mn euros ($30mn), that he had stashed in a Swiss bank account in 2007.The Socialist opposition has accused the government of “tailoring” the fiscal amnesty for Barcenas.Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro denied yesterday that Barcenas had taken advantage of the measure.So far, prosecutors have found no links between Barcenas’ Swiss bank account and the alleged secret accounting of the PP.A judge investigating the former PP treasurer in a separate case said that he had also held 1.5mn euros in another Swiss account.The escalating crisis facing Rajoy adds to the pressure on his government as it struggles to roll out deeply unpopular austerity measures aimed at bringing Spain’s long-running debt crisis to an end.Montoro defended the government’s ethical record, saying that it had taken “the toughest measures against tax evasion and corruption” since Spain became a democracy, after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.Socialist representative Oscar Lopez said Rajoy’s situation had become “unsustainable” and called on him resign.