The colonial official Antonio Nombela accused several leaders of Lerroux's party, and especially the vice-secretary of the Presidency of the Government, Moreno Calvo, of signing a contract paying the West African Company, property of the Catalan businessman Antonio Tayá, to connect by ship the route between Fernando Poo, Río Muni and Annobón, which had been canceled in 1929.
Unlike the straperlo scandal, Alejandro Lerroux was directly involved because as president of the government he had signed the contract.
When the parliamentary debate took place, Alejandro Lerroux was not able to give convincing explanations about the corruption accusations, although he was exonerated in the vote.
But Alcalá Zamora refused to allow a party that had not proclaimed its loyalty to the Republic to occupy power and entrusted the formation of the government to a politician he trusted, the liberal Portela Valladares.
But the Portela government that was formed on December 15, 1935, formed by center-right Republicans and which left out the CEDA, did not get a confidence vote by the Cortes, so Alcalá Zamora decided to dissolve the Cortes on January 7, 1936 and call new elections for February, which would be won by the left-wing coalition called the Popular Front.