FORMER senator and treasurer for the PP, Luis Bárcenas has gone to jail and will stay there until his case comes to trial.
He has been denied bail since Supreme Court judge Pablo Ruz believes there is a risk of the disgraced politician's absconding.
Bárcenas and his wife, Rosalía Iglesias, testified yesterday (Thursday) amid allegations that they had forged parts of their tax declarations between 2002 and 2006 and after Swiss authorities advised judge Ruz that funds had been transferred to the USA and Uruguay from accounts Bárcenas held at Dresdner Bank and Lombard Odier.
He is thought to have accumulated as much as 47 million euros in Swiss bank accounts, which he claims is the result of having sold valuable works of art and property, and investments abroad.
But some of the money is thought to have come from back-handers paid to the PP party for preferential treatment.
Sra Iglesias was called to testify after 'strange' bank account transactions totalling over 600,000 euros in five years were detected nearly four months ago – despite the fact that she did not have a job or an income from any other source.
Bárcenas is also considered to be involved in the infamous Gürtel corruption case, where a network of companies paid bribes to members of the PP.
It was the Gürtel connection that led Dresdner Bank and Lombard Odier to hold off-the-record conversations with each other about Bárcenas' account movements, which led to his alleged tax fraud being uncovered.
He is also accused of having paid cash-in-hand extra wages to top-flight members of the PP over a 10-year period, including to current president Mariano Rajoy, something the PP and Rajoy deny.
