As the fifth anniversary of the 1st October referendum approaches, and with the Catalan sovereignist political parties lacking a shared roadmap, the judicial cases against the independence movement show no signs of stopping. One of them is the so-called Volhov case, which began when the judge of Barcelona investigative court number 1, Joaquín Aguirre, ordered the arrest of around a dozen people in October 2020, to find out if Catalonia's independence process and the struggle from exile had been financed illegally. Two years later, the Civil Guard has not detailed any suspicious operation, except for some instances of private businesss receiving public investment. However, recently, the governance chamber of the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) approved the request made by judge Aguirre to grant him extra judicial support for six months in view of the push he intends to give to the inquiries into this wide-ranging investigation, whose case number, 111/2016, reflects the fact that it began six years ago with arrests and searches at the Provincial Council of Barcelona, where the Civil Guard indicated that organizations connected to the now-defunct CiU party were receiving subsidies that were not sufficiently justified, in the not-for-profit sector. This matter resulted in the Volhov case, which at the same time has a large number of different parts: a total of 17 separate sections under investigation, and 250 testimonies, it is reported.
Specifically, judge Joaquín Aguirre has informed the TSJC that: "For the months from October 2022 to April 2023, a schedule of testimonies has been drawn up that involves working on or making use of two days a week, exclusively, for to the hearing of testimonies from suspects and witnesses in the different separate sections" of the case, and that "given the importance, delicacy and complexity of the testimonies, it is not possible to schedule more than four appearances a day". He adds that the realization of this calendar "makes it impossible, materially, to reconcile with the management of trials for minor offences and the rest of the ordinary preliminary proceedings of the court", and for this reason he has requested a supplementary judge to take on these minor trials and proceedings. And the TSJC governance chamber has considered this reinforcement appropriate in view of "the complexity in the investigation of the preliminary proceedings 111/2016". The reinforcement must now be approved by Spain's General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), although recruiting efforts among judges practicing in Catalonia have already begun. Requests for judicial reinforcements are common in Catalonia in the face of high workloads, although not all are approved.
From Catmon to Villa Bugatti
Of the original case that gave birth to the wide-ranging Volhov investigation at the provincial authority, the Diputació de Barcelona, only one piece remains open, which is that of the Catmon foundation. Its president, Víctor Terradellas, international relations secretary for the CDC party until June 2016, declared before the judge in May that Francesc de Dalmases, current MP for Junts, had been in charge of processing the subsidies and that the TSJC had already refused to investigate him for this matter, when he was summoned, asking the judge to find more criminal evidence. It is expected, therefore, that the head of court number wants to follow through on this section soon, after the newest interrogations carried out.
The Terradellas searches were the origin of the Volhov case, since on one of the phones belonging to the politician, a conversation was found that included former Catalan minister Xavier Vendrell (ERC party) and former CDC party leader David Madí, in which Terradellas told the pair about the Russian government's support for Catalonia's independence process, mentioning an offer of 10,000 Russian soldiers. Thus, Vendrell and Madí, together with the businessperson Oriol Soler, plus Xavier Vinyals and the head of Puigdemont's office, the historian Josep Lluís Alay, among others, were arrested on October 28th, 2020, after having their mobile phones monitored for a year. Judge Aguirre was also investigating whether these arrested people were behind the Tsunami Democràtic pro-independence protest platform, a part of the case that was transferred to the National Audience court in Madrid, as Manuel García Castellón, judge of that court, had demanded.
When Terradellas appeared in Barcelona court number 1, he also clarified that the Russian operators offered military support and cryptocurrency business once Catalonia had become an independent state. A meeting between then-Catalan president Puigdemont and some Russian business people was confirmed by Elsa Artadi in court, affirming that she did not know what they wanted. The statement made by Terradellas to the court will have to be repeated, since lawyers for some of those investigated in the Volhov case were not summoned to the testimony.
For his part, David Madí went to testify voluntarily in court in July 2021 and denied any irregular business with public funds, nor any influence peddling, the judge states. Madí's defence lawyer maintains that in his professional consulting work it is normal for him to him to advise clients and interview politicians. He adds that the Catalan transparency law, in its article 48, excludes him from being registered in the register of interest groups, a point on which the judge has criticised him. Madí also assures that he did not believe Terradellas when he announced that they would receive the support of the Russian government with 10,000 soldiers, as can be inferred from the audio.
Aside from Catmon, one of the Volhov case elements that will surely gain more momentum this autumn, through testimonies, is the Villa Bugatti piece. Villa Bugatti is an estate in the Maresme coastal town of Cabrera de Mar, where social events are held, and the transfer to this locations of the special educational center El Brot, until now located in Sant Joan Despí on the other side of the Barcelona metropolitan area, had been planned. The instigator of this was the then-president of the entity and former ERC minister, Xavier Vendrell, who carried out certain bureaucratic procedures with a subsidy from the Catalan government, and the judge wants to know whether he sought to make any personal profit from the re-zoning of the site. In June, the deputy director general of the “la Caixa” Foundation, Esther Planas, testified, as a witness, before the court, since El Brot was one of the centres subsidized by this large charitable foundation. Sources from Vendrell's defence assure that his statement was "absolutely exculpatory" and that there was no evidence of malpractice on anyone's part, since the bureaucratic work involved was a generic procedure for the granting of subsidies.
Aside from Vendrell, also arrested in the Villa Bugatti section of the case in October 2020, were the mayor of Cabrera de Mar, Jordi Mir (Junts), and the town's town planning councillor, Enric Mir, who was forced to resign by ERC due to these matters, after 38,000 euros in cash was discovered in his office, although he assured that it was family money. In addition, the Civil Guard insists that the current Catalan education minister, Josep González Cambray, was involved in the Villa Bugatti operation. According to the Civil Guard, González Cambray promoted the Vendrell project when he was general director of public school centres, despite knowing that it did not meet the legal requirements. This part of the case is also investigating Pilar Contreras, then director general of private and concerted schools. If judge Aguirre finds evidence against the Catalan education minister, he will have to pass his investigation over to the Catalan High Court, since the minister is protected by his office from lower-court investigation.
Anti-corruption prosecutor leaves
One of the changes in the Volhov case this autumn is that a new anti-corruption prosecutor will join the investigation. Current prosecutor Fernando Maldonado has requested a transfer to practice in the Valencian Country. Lately, prosecutor Maldonado has been very critical of judge Aguirre, and in some of his writs on the case he has accused the judge of wanting to carry out "prospective investigations", which are illegal. This was the case with the investigation opened into Josep Lluís Alay on an alleged Russian gas business deal involving businessman Alexander Dmitrenko. This summer, the judge finally had to abandon it due to a lack of criminal evidence against Alay, as well as finding no link to an alleged Russian plot with president Puigdemont, as had been claimed.
