The financial analysis incorporated by the UDEF into the judicial order to which DEMÓCRATA has had access confirms the existence of an economic circuit allegedly designed to channel funds from the airline rescue of Plus Ultra to the circle of the former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his family circle, which includes his daughters, Alba Rodríguez Espinosa and Laura Rodríguez Espinosa, identified by investigators as the ultimate beneficiaries of the operation analyzed.
The judicial resolution describes a complex corporate and financial network supported by ONIF reports and investigations carried out by the UDEF, which point to the existence of an organized structure intended, allegedly, to exert illicit influences, obtain favorable administrative decisions, and conceal economic compensation through fictitious contracts and cross-fund movements.
The order, according to documentation consulted by DEMÓCRATA, places a former President of the Government at the center of an investigation of these characteristics for the first time in Spanish democratic history.
Personal Use
On page 59 of the judicial document, the operation of the economic scheme is detailed. The company Análisis Relevante allegedly received more than 941,000 euros from Plus Ultra, Softgestor, Grupo Aldesa and Inteligencia Prospectiva. Subsequently, significant amounts were allegedly sent from that same company to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, specifically 490,780 euros, and to the company Whathefav -run by his daughters-, for the amount of 239,755 euros.
In turn, Inteligencia Prospectiva allegedly channeled nearly 1.2 million euros to Análisis Relevante, Whathefav, and Gate Center, companies that subsequently redistributed funds to the circle of the former socialist president and members of his family.
Investigators also highlight relevant transfers to accounts of his daughters, asset acquisitions, and early loan cancellations, facts that, according to the order, would reinforce the hypothesis of personal use of the obtained funds.
“The analyzed evidence —intercepted conversations, emails, institutional meetings, contracts, payments, and financial flows— allows us to maintain that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero exercises effective leadership over a structure designed to exert illicit influences, obtain favorable administrative decisions, and conceal economic considerations through fictitious contracts, being himself the main final beneficiary and ultimate supervisor of the operation,” the judicial resolution literally underlines
The final beneficiaries of the scheme
The judicial document delves particularly into the final destination of the funds channeled through the corporate network controlled by Julio Martínez Martínez, considered by investigators to be a key player in the operation.
According to the order, the economic flow came from Plus Ultra, either directly or through interposed companies such as Caletón Consultores and Summer Wind, in addition to contributions made by Inteligencia Prospectiva, Softgestor, and Grupo Aldesa.
The ONIF maintains that the main paying company in the scheme between 2020 and 2025 was Análisis Relevante, which made payments totaling 707,467.58 euros.
In addition to the flow of funds already described, investigators identify the following as main recipients of payments within the corporate environment controlled by Julio Martínez Martínez:
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José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero: 418,000 euros.
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Whathefav SL: 242,423.50 euros.
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Viajes Zafiro SL: 197,417.75 euros.
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Compañía Inversora de Superficies SLU: 187,550 euros.
This last company would be integrated, according to the order, into Julio Martínez Martínez's own business network.
Zapatero and his wife's account
In the bank account shared by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and María Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz, there are deposits from Análisis Relevante amounting to 445,200 euros between March 11, 2021, and June 20, 2025.
The banking documentation also includes three transfers made in 2020 totaling 29,680 euros. Thus, and according to the set of information analyzed by the ONIF and the UDEF, Análisis Relevante would have paid Zapatero a total of 490,780 euros between 2020 and 2025.
The order also notes that the rest of the income detected in said account would come from the collection of international conferences, mediation work, strategic advice, and academic and geopolitical activities.
Among these incomes are:
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37 transfers from Thinking Heads Group SL for a total of 649,552 euros.
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37 transfers from The Global Analysis & Trends In Emerging Regions for the amount of 352,980 euros.
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Two transfers from Thinking Heads Americas LLC for a total of 31,766.04 euros.
The sole administrator of Thinking Heads Group SL is Daniel Romero-Abreu Kaup, also identified as the founder and current president of Gate Center. The order highlights that the Thinking Heads group paid José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero a total of 681,318.04 euros, while Gate Center would have transferred another 352,980 euros.
Likewise, Inteligencia Prospectiva would have paid 561,440 euros to Whathefav and 266,200 euros to Gate Center. To this would be added another 171,727 euros sent from Gate Center to Whathefav and 12,297 euros transferred by Thinking Heads Group to the same company.
For the investigators, all these movements reflect a concentration of payments to a small group of recipients linked to each other within the same corporate and family environment.
Transfers to Zapatero's daughters
The investigation also focuses on the personal accounts of Laura Rodríguez Espinosa and Alba Rodríguez Espinosa. According to the judicial order, the account held by Laura Rodríguez Espinosa would have received 247,191.06 euros between April 2021 and December 2025 from Whathefav.
For her part, Alba Rodríguez Espinosa's account would have received 199,904.25 euros between April 2023 and December 2025. In both accounts, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is listed as authorized, a fact that, according to investigators, reinforces the operational connection between the different actors in the alleged scheme linked to the Plus Ultra rescue.
The European PP asks the European Commission about the rescue of Plus Ultra
In this political context, the vice-president of the European People's Party, the Spaniard Dolors Montserrat, has increased pressure on Brussels after registering a parliamentary question this week addressed to the European Commission to demand explanations about the 53 million euro bailout granted to Plus Ultra. The popular leader demands an exhaustive investigation following the indictment of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for alleged crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling, document forgery, and money laundering. From the European People's Party, they warn that the European Union cannot allow exceptional funds intended to protect companies during the pandemic to end up fueling alleged networks of political influence and private benefits.
Montserrat maintains that the investigation led by Judge José Luis Calama at the National Court has acquired an international dimension of enormous gravity, with judicial cooperation from France and Switzerland and coinciding with investigations opened in the United States on alleged financial structures linked to Chavismo. According to the popular leader, the Plus Ultra case could evidence a misuse of European state aid mechanisms, approved during the health crisis through the Fund for the Solvency of Strategic Companies (FASEE).
The vice-president of the EPP further denounces that the PSOE would have tried to turn "Europe into the ATM for its schemes of favors and personal benefits," and links this episode with other scandals that, in her opinion, erode the international image of Pedro Sánchez's Government. In this context, Montserrat demands that the European Commission clarify whether essential principles of Community law, such as transparency, equal treatment, or the correct control of public aid, were violated.
Special concern is also generated by the "sudden and opaque" replacement of the liaison magistrate in charge of coordinating judicial cooperation with France and Switzerland, precisely when international investigations into alleged money laundering operations were advancing. For Montserrat, the Executive must explain whether it tried to weaken judicial cooperation mechanisms at a particularly sensitive moment for Zapatero's political circle. "What is at stake is not only a possible corruption case in Spain, but the credibility of European mechanisms for controlling and supervising public aid," concludes the popular leader.