The indictment of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has put the spotlight on the communication and marketing agency of his daughters, Whatefav S.L. The firm, whose headquarters were registered this Tuesday by the Police, provided services for Análisis Relevante, the consultancy at the center of the investigation into the diversion of the 53 million euros that the State injected into the airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic. However, the judge of the National Court José Luis Calama considers that Whatefav was, along with Zapatero, the main economic beneficiary of a criminal network from which it received more than 420,000 euros.
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The former socialist president has defended on several occasions that he carried out consulting work with several companies for Análisis Relevante, but that he never received commissions from Plus Ultra. It is in the execution of these works where the agency of his daughters intervened, according to his version: “They counted on me to see if I would be a consultant,” Zapatero explained in the Senate last March 2. “Julio Martínez, as the majority partner of that company [Análisis Relevante], proposed that I be a consultant and I suggested that my daughters also be involved.”
The consulting reports for which he was contracted by Análisis Relevante were prepared jointly with Sergio Sánchez, a former CNI advisor between 2009 and 2018, and current executive at Movistar+. “The written reports were one part [of the consulting work],” the former president clarified then. “Sergio and I made them. I gave the final approval and sent them to Whatefav.” The agency was responsible, always according to Zapatero, for their layout.
On the contrary, the magistrate of the National Court argues in his ruling that behind these alleged services there is a criminal network whose leader was the former Prime Minister and that sought, through shell companies, simulated documentation, and opaque financial channels, “to exert illicit influences, conceal the origin and destination of the funds, and obtain economic benefits in favor of third parties and the network itself.” The transfer of these funds to the corporate environment of the network would have been formalized through contracts, generally advisory or consulting, used merely as documentary justification before third parties.
Regarding the final beneficiaries, the ruling points out that Análisis Relevante would have sent 490,780 euros to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and 239,755 euros to Whathefav, so that most of the funds received by Análisis Relevante —coming from Plus Ultra, Inteligencia Prospectiva (another of the companies registered this Tuesday), Softgestor, and Grupo Aldesa— ended up in the environment of the former president.
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Additionally, the magistrate points to other fund transfers to Zapatero and his daughters’ agency: the Gate Center —a think tank chaired by the former president’s advisory council and managed by the Thinking Heads group— would have sent 352,980 euros to the former president and 171,727 euros to Whathefav, while companies from the Thinking Heads group, linked to Daniel Romero-Abreu Kaup, would have sent 681,318 euros to the former socialist leader and 12,297 euros to the agency co-directed by his daughters.
Whathefav was created in August 2019 by Laura Rodríguez. She and her sister, Alba, daughters of the former president, are registered in the Commercial Registry as joint administrators. Although, initially, it also provided services for her father’s reports, on its website the company presents itself as a creative and multimedia agency specialized in e-sports, video game competitions: “Pioneers and creators of marketing strategies inside and outside electronic sports.”
In 2020, the year Zapatero began his collaboration with Análisis Relevante, Whathefav invoiced more than 155,000 euros. On March 9, 2021, the Government approved a 53 million euro bailout for Plus Ultra. That year, the marketing agency’s turnover shot up to 242,208.68 euros and it earned 35,580.16. Its profits have progressively increased: in 2022, they earned 56,492 euros. The following year they almost doubled their profits, surpassing 100,000 euros. In 2024, the last year they filed accounts, Whathefav earned 125,639.98 euros.
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