{"id":26315,"date":"2026-05-19T14:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/26315\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:36:14","slug":"spain-former-spanish-pm-zapatero-charged-over-alleged-influence-peddling-scheme-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/26315\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain: Former Spanish PM Zapatero charged over alleged influence\u2011peddling scheme | Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Spanish prime minister Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero has been charged as the alleged leader of \u201ca stable and hierarchical influence\u2011peddling structure\u201d whose purpose was \u201cto obtain economic benefits through intermediation and the exertion of influence before public bodies on behalf of third parties, mainly [the airline] Plus Ultra.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation is examining the alleged existence of a money\u2011laundering scheme linked to the public bailout of \u20ac53 million (about $57.2 million) that the government granted to the airline after the Covid-19 pandemic. Judge Jos\u00e9 Luis Calama, head of Investigative Court No. 4 of the National Court, has summoned the former leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers\u2019 Party (PSOE) to testify next June 2.<\/p>\n

This is the first time in Spain since the transition to democracy that a former prime minister has been investigated in a corruption case. The Attorney General\u2019s Office, led by Alejandro Luz\u00f3n, has been looking since 2024 into the whereabouts of the bailout funds granted in March 2021, after receiving two information requests from authorities in Switzerland and France regarding alleged money\u2011laundering activities in those countries. <\/p>\n

In the court order summoning Zapatero to testify, Judge Calama alleges that former prime minister and people in his circle received \u20ac1.95 million ($2.11 million) in improper payments from the Plus Ultra bailout case. <\/p>\n

In his court order, the judge says the payments under suspicion came from three different companies and were directed to Zapatero himself and to Whathefav SL, a company owned by his two daughters.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the judge highlights that An\u00e1lisis Relevante \u2014 the consulting firm at the center of the case, headed by Zapatero associate Julio Mart\u00ednez Mart\u00ednez \u2014 transferred \u20ac490,780 ($530,000) to Zapatero and \u20ac239,755 ($259,000) to Whathefav.<\/p>\n

An\u00e1lisis Relevante was paid by Plus Ultra, the airline that received a public bailout during the Covid-19 pandemic<\/a>, as well as by three other companies: Inteligencia Prospectiva, Softgestor, and Grupo Aldesa. The judge says most of the funds the consultancy received from the airline \u201cended up in the circle of Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former prime minister, speaking before the Senate, denied any wrongdoing and said the payments were compensation for consulting work consisting of \u201cwritten and oral\u201d reports.<\/p>\n

\"\"National Police officers leaving the office of former prime minister Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero on Tuesday.
\nJaime Villanueva<\/p>\n

The second company named in the court order as a source of funds is Gate Center, a think tank chaired by Zapatero. It is run by Thinking Heads, a firm specializing in knowledge platforms that the judge also identifies as a separate source of the payments under suspicion.<\/p>\n

From Gate Center, \u20ac352,980 ($381,000) was allegedly sent to Zapatero and \u20ac171,727 ($185,000) to Whathefav. From Thinking Heads \u2014 founded by businessman Daniel Romero\u2011Abreu Kaup \u2014 \u20ac681,318 ($736,000) was transferred to Zapatero and \u20ac12,297 ($13,300) to his daughters\u2019 company.<\/p>\n

In the order, the judge also states that Zapatero, with the help of his secretary Mar\u00eda Gertrudis Alc\u00e1zar Jim\u00e9nez and businessman Julio Mart\u00ednez, gave instructions to set up a company in Dubai (Landside Dubai FZCO or Landside Middle East FZCO). The business plan projected revenue of $3 million over five years, and the firm would be wholly owned by the Spanish company Idella Consulenza Strategica, also run by Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe close timing between the creation of this company and the signing of the contract under which Idella was to receive \u20ac530,000 [$572,000] \u2014 equivalent to 1% of the public bailout [to Plus Ultra] \u2014 with no record of the payment in Spain, strengthens the hypothesis that the Dubai company was created to receive funds abroad and avoid traceability within Spain,\u201d states the High Court\u2019s summary of the court order.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Spanish prime minister Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero has been charged as the alleged leader of \u201ca stable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13614,13647,17],"class_list":["post-26315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-jose-luis-rodriguez-zapatero","tag-plus-ultra","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}