The Investigative Court Number 41 of Madrid has opened preliminary proceedings against the wife of President Pedro Sánchez Begoña Gómez to shed light on the relationships with various private companies that signed public contracts with her husband’s executive: the alleged crimes, according to what was reported by the newspaper El Confidencial and Vozpópuli. they are those of influence peddling and corruption in business.
This investigation was opened following a complaint presented by the union ‘Clean hands’, led by Miguel Bernad. Entrepreneur Carlos Barrabés was targeted, whose company managed to win a public tender also thanks, among other documents, to a letter signed by the president’s wife in her capacity as co-director of the Master in Fundraising of the Complutense University of Madrid.
Through Gómez’s recommendation, the consortium of temporary companies that was formed (Ute) managed to obtain the three lots for which they competed in 2020, overcoming the competition of at least twenty other companies: only the first assigned had a value of over 7 million euros.
Mani Pulite therefore requests that the judge have access to the alleged cases letters of recommendation as well as all the files delivered to the entrepreneur, as well as the possibility of listening to the various witnesses and comparing their stories. The complaint is inherent to the crimes provided for by article 429 of the penal code, referring to the abuse of personal relationships in order to influence public officials for one’s own advantage or that of third parties, and to the crimes of private corruption provided for by article 286 bis of the penal code , which punishes the offering of unjustified advantages to directors or collaborators of private entities to obtain favors unduly.
“On a day like this, and despite the news I have learned, despite everything, I continue to believe in the justice of my country”was the comment of the head of the Spanish government Sanchez.
The Koldo case
As regards the proceedings opened by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, it focuses in particular on the business relationships maintained by Begoña Gómez at the height of the pandemic. His name emerged in the context of the Koldo case due to his links with the entrepreneur Víctor de Aldama. The investigation, centered on a massive sale of masks in the midst of the pandemic involving the Ministry of Transport, revealed that this businessman turned to Air Europa to obtain medical supplies.
De Aldama was on the payroll for two years as an advisor to the Globalia company, owner of Air Europa, at a particularly delicate moment for it: the entrepreneur was tasked with recovering a 180 million euro debt from Venezuela. In this context, several secret meetings took place between Begoña Gómez and de Aldama, as well as two visits by the wife of the president of the government to Air Europa in the months of June and July of the same 2020. The dates are relevant, given that in that period the rescue of the company was being planned, which was formalized in the first days of November of the same year.
For these facts, the prosecution of the Koldo case requested the testimony of Begoña Gómez in the proceedings, but the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and Judge Ismael Moreno opposed it, believing that it was not related to the facts under investigation.
