The former socialist president of the government (2004 and 2011) had companies in the USAaccording to the first information that emerges from the collaboration that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provides to the Spanish National Police.
Also connections in Dubai, Arab Emirates, China, and European countries. All with the purpose of avoiding any type of follow-up that could reveal their irregular financial operations, the decision of about 80 pages that derives from the criminal investigation results.
“This scandal could be the mother of all the corruption plots that surround the Spanish government and in the US they have been monitoring Rodríguez Zapatero for many months,” confirms Juan José Núñez, economist and president of the Spanish Popular Party (PP) in the United States, to DIARIO LAS AMERICAS.
And he points out that “it is just a little bit of the tip of the iceberg of what will surely be bigger.”
Núñez, based in Miami, assures that in the coming weeks more details of the international corruption “of this character unworthy of having been president of the government of Spain” will come to light.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero before justice
On May 19, Rodríguez Zapatero was accused by Judge José Luis Calama, of the Spanish National Court, of having “led” a criminal organization of influence peddling and document falsification in a complex money laundering network surrounding the rescue of the Plus Ultra airline for about 61 million dollars (53 million euros) approved by the Council of Ministers of Pedro Sánchez, in 2021.
The former president of the government and his associates would have irregularly obtained commissions for 2.26 million dollars (1.95 million euros), according to the investigation for which Rodríguez Zapatero will have to testify next June.
According to new information, the illicit operations not only involve Rodríguez Zapatero’s two daughters, but also his wife Sonsoles Espinoza and his secretary Gertrudis Alcázar, after the National Police in a search ordered by the judge found high-value jewelry in a safe in the former president’s professional office, as supposed “travel gifts.”
Julio Martínez Martínez, a friend of the former president, appears as an intermediary for the Spanish socialist, who controlled a network of 39 companies for alleged money laundering and who was discovered to have a company in the Virgin Islands that controlled a securities portfolio worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the investigation.
Martínez also appears as legal representative of the company Idella Consulenza Strategica, which signs the contract for the collection of the commission of 530,000 euros from Plus Ultra, and also the parent company for foreign operations.
The judicial process, reactivated in 2023 when the prosecution strengthened new evidence, represents a scandal of unprecedented proportions in the country, with international repercussions, which has put Sánchez’s mandate in suspense, in the midst of growing political polarization, and which at the same time “demonstrates very clearly that impunity does not exist in Spain because there are independent institutions,” says Núñez.
Illicit network touches the US
Among the international connections mentioned by Judge Calama in his decision is that of the company Thinking Heads Group SL, with a branch in the US, under suspicion of having been used in the financial arrangements for the rescue of Plus Ultra, according to publications.
This company would have made almost 40 payments of more than 600,000 euros to the Spanish consultancy Analysis Relevante, managed by Martínez, indicated in addition to being linked to the Venezuelan circle.
Judge Calama also pointed out in his ruling that the main clients of the Softgestor company are companies based in the US and linked to Venezuela, which would emerge from an analysis of tax information and for which the legal representation is being investigated, it was reported.
DHS would have collaborated in this investigation.
“Who knows if Maduro, “Pollo” Carvajal or the Rodríguez brothers themselves (Delcy and Jorge) who are so close to Rodríguez Zapatero have given information to the US,” says Núñez, commenting without much detail on the investigations into connections with the US.
However, he says he is convinced of the “very close collaboration in the transfer of information” between Spain and the US, and warns that the US authorities cannot open a case against Rodríguez Zapatero “if there are no registered illegal commissions, criminal activity here.”
Research underway
He notes, however, that the information about the connections indicates that “there is already an investigation underway and there is no one to stop it, especially in the United States.”
In this context, it does not seem coincidental that Rodríguez Zapatero has been charged one day after Caracas authorities, led by the head in charge Delcy Rodríguez, have handed over to the US justice system the Colombian businessman and financial operations of the Maduro regime, Alex Saab, after months of being “held” and investigated for the second time for money laundering and for which he is imprisoned in Florida.
“It seems that there is a bank in Miami in which income has been made and there is talk of more than a million dollars from one of Zapatero’s front men,” he says.
“Although Zapatero’s name had already come up in previous investigations, the important thing now is to demonstrate that, indirectly, through one of the front men, there are commissions paid in a US bank. But, although there is still very little information, it is very clear.”
“If that is proven, I believe that the US would be willing, like Spain, to prosecute him,” adds the Spanish politician.
straight justice
He points out that in the US, as has been seen in other cases such as Venezuela, the authorities and the police “don’t mess around.” “If they have investigations and indications that something illegal is happening in American territory, they do not release the suspect until they prosecute him. And I believe that is what can happen.”
The PP leader assures that the “dimension of this entire issue is very, very large” based on information from international media.
Rodríguez Zapatero would have ordered the constitution of the company off-shore Landside Dubai Fzco (or Landside Middle East Fzco), in Dubai, in 2021, with majority participation of the company Idella and with a plan to obtain three million dollars in five years, according to the court order. It was run by the PSOE activist in Madrid, Tomás Guerrero Blanco, director of an organization dedicated to certifying animals that Muslims eat, it was reported.
With a similar plan, Martínez, Rodríguez Zapatero’s right-hand man, offered professional consulting services to do business in the United Arab Emirates, a country in which he oriented companies interested in investing in Latin America, according to the investigation in which the Central Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) was key.
But Dubai would have been the destination of a unique operation, according to recent information from the Spanish Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF).
“Several tons of gold” were transported to this city in the United Arab Emirates from a financial entity in Venezuela, through the United Kingdom airline Coyne Airways, and the operator would have been the Venezuelan Rodolfo Reyes Rojas, founder of Snip Aviation SL, controlling shareholder of Plus Ultra and domiciled in Madrid, a Spanish media revealed.
The operation would have served to launder Venezuelan gold and at the same time circumvent the tracking of funds for Plus Ultra.
Political wealth
“Due to the obvious and very large connection with Rodríguez Zapatero, this matter is going to do a lot of damage to Pedro Sánchez, and we are no longer talking about the alleged corruption of his wife or his brother or the general secretaries of Sánchez’s party, but rather about Zapatero, the mentor and advisor,” Núñez points out.
After remembering that the president of the Spanish government expressed his open support for Rodríguez Zapatero in a question made to him by the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, he did not rule out that over time Pedro Sánchez would also be implicated, “for all the damage that these two sinister characters from the Spanish left have done to the country.”
He affirms that due to everything that has happened, Sánchez’s government “is already overloaded and has to call elections.”
He considers that the actions of the police and the judge in the investigation not only show “a blow, a blow on the table when they already had all the evidence,” but also that there is no impunity in Spain.
“If there were doubts at any time, due to the strong pressure that the Spanish government puts on the judges who investigate or hand down sentences or on independent journalists, this is a demonstration of the separation of powers in Spain and gives us hope that the institutions are respected, and that sooner or later whoever does it pays. It does not matter if you are from the right, the left or the center,” asserts the Spanish politician.
