Former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been charged with money laundering in an investigation into the alleged laundering of 53 million euros in public rescue money that the Government gave to the airline Plus Ultra after the pandemic. Judge José Luis Calama, head of investigating court number 4 of the Audiencia Nacional, and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are investigating the whereabouts of that money and are keeping the company’s owners, who have ties to Venezuela, under investigation. According to investigation sources confirmed to EL PAÍS, the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police is conducting an operation on this matter this Tuesday.
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This is the first time in a democracy that a former Prime Minister has been investigated in a corruption case. The Prosecutor’s Office, led by Sala Prosecutor Alejandro Luzón, has been investigating the whereabouts of the rescue money since 2024, after two requests for information arrived from Switzerland and France regarding money laundering in that territory. At the end of 2025, the matter was brought to court in Investigating Court number 15 of Madrid. In fact, on December 11, the UDEF raided the headquarters of Plus Ultra and arrested the company’s president, Julio Martínez, and its CEO, Roberto Roselli.
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In that operation, the companies of an Alicante businessman, until then unknown, named Julio Martínez Martínez, whom the Police also arrested, were also searched. Martínez Martínez was not only a personal friend of Zapatero, and the person with whom he used to run some mornings for a year, but they also shared businesses.
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[Developing story. Update coming soon]