In the front row, from left, Pablo Iglesias, Ione Belarra, Irene Montero, Juan Carlos Monedero and Idoia Villanueva, at the graduation ceremony of the Fall University of Podemos last November in Madrid.Olmo Calvo
Podemos has reported that someone tried to pose as a party employee in charge of her Facebook account. The formation has sent a letter with reports of the incident to the judge in the Neurona case, Juan José Escalonilla, who has accused the political force of allegedly illegally hiring the Mexican consulting firm Neurona for the April 2019 general election. Podemos concedes an enormous transcendence to these facts , since part of the case deals with the videos that the American company has produced for its account on this social network. In addition, the party stresses that this attempted identity theft came just under a month after the police Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) requested access codes for their Facebook profile, which they refused to set up.
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In the letter sent to the judge, to which EL PAÍS had access, Podemos reports that on 11 [la compañía telefónica] Located in the Gran Vía de Hortaleza shopping center, Yoigo issues documents that would accredit it [como su trabajadora], posing as her and demanding a duplicate SIM card for her cell phone number.” The party adds that someone immediately managed to hack into the employee’s account on the Telegram news platform; and that they found out that there was access from an unknown IP address.
“We are not aware that this operation attempted to conduct any type of operation of a lucrative nature (fraud, checking account identity theft, etc.), which we believe indicates that the identity theft operation was reported. What he was seeking was, Obtaining information through the mobile phone, ”adds the document sent to Escalonilla, head of the Investigative Court No. 42 of Madrid.
In this letter, the allegations against the UDEF are coherent: “Being [la afectada] If the administrator of the Podemos profile on Facebook and the UDEF are interested in accessing the private profile of Podemos on this social network, this can be done using the mobile phone password recovery option [de la trabajadora]“.
According to the political power, in December 2021, the employee twice went to a police station to report what happened and even asked the agents to check the video cameras of the mall where the Yoigo store was located. “Although there appears to have been no action taken with respect to the reported facts, or at least it was not communicated to her,” the formation laments.
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The party’s leadership is well aware of another episode from 2015, when an aide to Pablo Iglesias, Dina Bousselham, reported the theft of her mobile phone in a mall. On his device he kept files and materials published by various media; and a copy of its contents was found in the possession of retired Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo.
Podemos and the UDEF have a long battle in the Neurona case. The party has accused this police unit of exceeding its duties and “exceeding” the orders issued by the judge during the investigation. The formation went so far as to ask the judge to urge the agents “to behave with due neutrality expected of public institutions in a constitutional state.” For their part, the UDEF made him ugly for not disclosing his Facebook passwords and even accused him of providing expert opinions from a trainee technician to counter their investigations.
Judge Escalonilla concluded the investigative phase on July 27, but has not yet decided whether to file the case or prosecute anyone. The judge is waiting for an expert opinion that will evaluate the price of the work done by Neurona for the party, to compare it with the 363,000 euros paid to the Mexican consultant. However, the instructor cannot find who will create this document, and a dozen companies and professionals have already refused to take on this task.
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