Former police officer José Manuel Villarejo keeps making headlines with new claims, this time about jobs he says he carried out on the edges of the law. According to Vozpópuli, the retired officer, currently in prison, used reserved funds to buy a house for the then Spanish prime minister Felipe González (in office 1982-1996).
In a conversation recorded on 25th October 2005, Villarejo told his partner Enrique García Castaño, known by the nickname Gordo, that he had used secret money to buy González a property. The reserved funds ("fondos reservados") is akin to the US "black budget": it's money within the interior ministry's budget intended to fund the fight against terrorism and organised crime. Spending from this budget, under the current system, only has to be explained behind closed doors to a limited commission in the Congress.
That was "one of the thousands of things" he did with public money: "I don't know how many payments for PSOE, I mean, payments for the house of the prime minister at the time, corruptions, a list", he said.
Vozpópuli contacted a spokesperson for former president Felipe González, who declined to comment on the allegations: "We won't talk about Villarejo".