The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has at his disposal telephone interceptions and WhatsApp messages sent between the top executives of the airline Plus Ultra and the network allegedly led by the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. These conversations now point to the ex-socialist leader, as stated in the order accessed by La Vanguardia.
One of them was the conversation held between the company’s CEO Roberto Roselli and another director: “I speak with a lackey (of Rodríguez Zapatero, referring to businessman Julio Martínez). He already told Julio (Julio Martínez Sola, president of Plus Ultra) that they set up their finance boutique. So the kickback will come from there.”
In another conversation between Roselli and director Rodolfo Reyes, in 2020, the latter asks if “the financial boutique” had set a price for its services. For the judge, this term boutique refers to a commercial structure: “not yet but he already told us about it hahahaha. Well, if he gets something, he deserves payment.”
The investigator maintains the thesis, as a result of the investigative proceedings carried out so far, that there is a “stable and hierarchical” influence trafficking structure led by the former socialist head of government, whose purpose would have been to obtain economic benefits through intermediation and the exercise of influence before public bodies in favor of third parties, mainly the company Plus Ultra.
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According to the order of entries and searches accessed by La Vanguardia, Zapatero stands as the “decisive and strategic core” of the network. His leadership is not manifested publicly, the resolution continues, but through “his capacity for direction, coordination, and supervision, avoiding as much as possible the direct execution of the most compromising actions.” “That role is deduced from multiple pieces of evidence,” states the investigator, among them the conversations referring to his management capacity.
”Our buddy Zapatero behind,” “Grupo Zapatero has had it since this morning. They were already on it (they say),” “the Gowair people know everything we do, even that Zapa is our contact,” “I don’t know if it will be good for them to give him a technical nudge from above or for Zapatero to talk to someone at SEPI,” “what I want is for him to talk to SEPI, him or Zapatero, and get at least verbally that they grant us the aid with 100% certainty. With that answer, they should look for a bank for the bridge loan,” “Tomorrow Zapatero intervenes directly. He will try to get us the permits without the Embassy having to intervene.”
Read more The judge places Zapatero as “leader of a stable and hierarchical structure” of influence peddling
