High Court charges ex Spanish PM Zapatero with money laundering and criminal organisation in ‘Plus Ultra’ probe

Zapatero

Police search politician's office ahead of June testimony; investigation focuses on alleged use of family firms to funnel airline bailout funds

Melchor Sáiz-Pardo

The Spanish High Court has formally charged former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero with money laundering, membership of a criminal organisation, and influence peddling.

Following a months-long investigation, Judge José Luis Calama lifted a seal of judicial secrecy on Tuesday to reveal what he describes as an "organised and stable structure" led by Zapatero, designed to trade political influence for illicit financial gain.

The investigation centres on the controversial 2021 state bailout of the airline Plus Ultra, which received €53 million in pandemic relief funds - a rescue package that investigators now allege was a vehicle for massive personal enrichment.

The escalation of the case saw agents from the National Police’s Unit Against Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF) raid several high-profile locations, including Zapatero’s official state office on Ferraz Street, located just doors away from the PSOE national headquarters. Parallel searches were conducted at the offices of Whathefav SL, a communications agency owned and managed by Zapatero’s daughters, Laura and Alba Rodríguez Espinosa.

According to the judicial ruling, the agency allegedly generated "ad hoc" invoices to provide a legal veneer for nearly 1 million euros in payments that investigators believe were diverted from the airline’s bailout and other Venezuelan-linked sources.

A critical pillar of the prosecution's case involves Zapatero’s close personal friend and "running partner," businessman Julio Martínez Martínez. Arrested in December, Martínez is alleged to have acted as a "chief lieutenant" and front man for the network, using his consultancy firms to channel hundreds of thousands of euros to the former Prime Minister.

While Zapatero has long defended these payments as legitimate fees for private consultancy work, the UDEF has highlighted a suspicious timeline: the primary firm used for these transactions was incorporated only 20 days after the clandestine 2020 landing of Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez in Madrid - an event that has become a focal point for allegations of illicit lobbying.

The case has been further bolstered by damaging testimony from former socialist figures, including ex-minister José Luis Ábalos, who claimed he faced direct pressure from Zapatero to facilitate the Plus Ultra deal. Investigators are also probing whether the funds originated from the looting of Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, and public food programmes.

As Zapatero prepares to become the first former Prime Minister in the history of Spanish democracy to testify as a criminal suspect on 2 June, he continues to maintain his total innocence, asserting that his professional activities have always remained entirely separate from the government's official airline rescue.