José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero defined Julio Martínez Martínez as “a good friend” during his appearance in the Senate. The former president also acknowledged that he worked drafting reports for one of Martínez’s companies, Análisis Relevante. It has now emerged that the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the Police maintains that Martínez was also the alleged frontman for Zapatero: “He is the boss’s bank.”
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According to a police report included in the Plus Ultra case file being handled by Judge José Luis Calama at the National Court, Martínez managed a complex network of 39 companies intended to channel funds obtained through kickbacks.
The police believe there are “indications of the existence of an organized network led and based on the influence held by Zapatero” and that “to distribute the funds obtained by that network,” Julio Martínez Martínez “would hold control of a broad corporate environment, with interest payments detected in favor of companies such as Análisis Relevante, Iot Domotic Europe, Voli Analítica, and Afitta.”
The police report adds that between 2020 and 2024 Martínez’s corporate network consisted of “39 companies.” But most, 20 of those companies, were inactive. Another three also had no activity yet “there is significant movement in their bank accounts.” And the other 15 companies did have operations, although “eight of them have no employees on payroll or their accumulated wages are below 10,000 euros in the analyzed period.”
Furthermore, investigators believe it was Julio Martínez who “formally assumed ownership or management of the corporate structure of the organized network” and that this corporate network “would operate as an instrument to channel funds” obtained from the kickbacks. The UDEF concludes that Julio Martínez played the role of “frontman for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.”
A conclusion supported by one of the conversations intercepted by the police. It is a talk held between two people linked to the network, Danilo Diazgranados and lawyer Miguel Palomero. During that conversation, the first, a Venezuelan businessman, “states that Julio Martínez Martínez ‘is the boss’s bank,’ with Palomero responding that he understands what he means,” according to the report.
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Thus, the police place Martínez “at a second hierarchical level within the network of influences” and consider that Zapatero’s friend acted “as a trusted person of the former president and served as a direct interlocutor with the network’s clients.” Additionally, investigators have detected that “the corporate environment of Julio Martínez Martínez received payments from Plus Ultra amounting to 598,910 euros.”
“Indirect payments have also been documented through the companies Caletón Consultores and Summer Wind, totaling 382,602 euros, payments that began when the organized network led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero started carrying out specific actions for Plus Ultra to obtain public aid.” These payments were justified through consultancy contracts “which would act as mere documentary justification for third parties.”
What investigators maintain is that the network influenced the Government to grant the bailout to Plus Ultra, an airline that only had one operational plane in 2020 and suffered from the coronavirus crisis as it could not fly. The Council of Ministers approved the bailout in March 2021 for 53 million euros. The alleged Zapatero network would have charged 1% of the bailout amount as a commission. The payments would have been concealed through the drafting of false reports.
Finally, the UDEF concludes that “the corporate environment controlled by Julio Martínez Martínez would not be limited to companies based in Spain, since there is evidence of the creation, following Zapatero’s instructions, of at least one company in off-shore territory, called Lanside Dubai Fzco or Landside Moddle East Fzco.”
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