Agents of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police continued carrying out searches this Tuesday, in the early afternoon, at Whathefav, the company linked to the daughters of former Government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, as well as at Softgestor, another company related to the 'Plus Ultra case' being investigated by the Audiencia Nacional.
According to procedural sources consulted by Europa Press, these actions are focused on both enclaves after the entries and searches ordered by the Audiencia Nacional magistrate José Luis Calama at Zapatero's professional office, located on Ferraz street, opposite the PSOE headquarters in Madrid, had been concluded.
UDEF officials, supported by agents from the Technical Intervention Operational Group (GOIT) of the National Police, moved early on Tuesday morning to both the former head of government's office and the company Inteligencia Prospectiva, as part of the case opened for an alleged crime of influence peddling and other associated illicit acts.
Sources familiar with the investigation also indicate that a request for information has been sent to the public company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI).
The case analyzes the alleged irregular use of the 53 million euros that the Government granted to the airline Plus Ultra as a rescue during the pandemic.
The focus of the investigation is on the possible influence that Zapatero might have exerted in that operation, allegedly in exchange for receiving funds through the businessman and friend of the former president, Julio Martínez, already arrested in this investigation.
In his order, Judge Calama maintains that Zapatero would have acted as "leader" of an influence peddling structure through which the former president and his daughters would have received almost two million euros. Furthermore, he attributes to him having given the order to establish 'off-shore' companies outside Spanish territory.
For his part, Zapatero has assured in a video that all his public and private activities are legal and has again denied having carried out any management in favor of the millionaire rescue of the airline Plus Ultra. "Never," he reaffirmed, "before any administration or the public sector."
He also denies having a commercial company "neither directly nor through third parties, neither in Spain nor outside Spain," assuring that he has never participated "in any operation of this type.
Zapatero has expressed his willingness to cooperate with Justice although he has advanced that he will exercise his "right to defense" with "all firmness and all conviction" and says that in the coming days he will attend to the media.