Two personal computers used by former Popular Party (PP) treasurer Luis Bárcenas, currently in jail after confessing to paying cash bonuses to the entire PP leadership, have been found to be devoid of any relevant information regarding illegal party financing. One of the machines had no hard drive and the other had been wiped clean.
High Court Judge Pablo Ruz had requested the PP to hand over the computers to help with his investigation into allegations of corruption but when the machines were analysed, one had no hard drive at all and the other contained no relevant information as the drive had been reformatted.
The PP had apparently warned the judge that the hard drive was reformatted when Bárcenas left the party in 2012, allegedly in order to give the computer to a different employee and any information that might have been stored by the former treasurer has been lost through this procedure.
The PP alleges that this procedure was carried out ‘according to the usual protocol for use and recycling of computer material’ and that reformatting is always carried out when equipment has been used by ‘persons who might have handled sensitive information.’
Whilst it might seem logical to wipe a hard drive clean before assigning it to another employee, leaving a machine without a hard drive would be a little unusual and render it virtually useless for the next employee.
Reformatting a hard drive does not necessarily mean that former data cannot be retrieved.