Spain’s National Court has frozen bank accounts belonging to former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as part of an investigation into payments allegedly linked to the €53 million ($61 million) state rescue of airline Plus Ultra during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Judge José Luis Calama, who heads Central Examining Court No 4 at the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid, ordered the freeze of up to €490,780 on May 21, the same day Zapatero was summoned to appear before him as a formal suspect on June 2, according to court documents.
Zapatero, who led a Socialist Party (PSOE) government in Spain between 2004 and 2011, has been charged with criminal organisation, influence peddling, document forgery and money laundering. He denies any wrongdoing.
The freeze covers the sum the former premier allegedly received from consultancy Análisis Relevante, one of the firms under investigation. The judge also blocked the accounts of Zapatero’s daughters, Laura and Alba, who are linked to a company called Whathefav.
According to investigators, Análisis Relevante paid out close to €1 million ($1.15 million) between 2020 and 2025, distributed between accounts held by the former premier and Whathefav.
In his order, Calama said the inquiry had established the existence of “an organised network for the unlawful exercise of influence, structurally organised and led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who is alleged to have placed his personal contacts and his capacity to access senior officials of the administration at the service of third parties seeking favourable decisions”.
The judge said the purpose of the alleged scheme had been “to obtain economic benefits through intermediation and the exercise of influence before public bodies in favour of third parties, principally Plus Ultra”.
Calama added that the influence had not been aimed at obtaining a general favour but at securing a specific administrative decision: the approval and payment of the public aid requested by Plus Ultra under Spain’s Solvency Support Fund.
Plus Ultra is a small Spanish carrier that received the €53 million bailout in 2021 from the Solvency Support Fund for Strategic Companies, managed by state holding company SEPI under the Spanish Government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The aid drew political criticism at the time because the loss-making airline was alleged to have ties to figures linked to the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Zapatero has maintained close ties with Maduro’s Venezuela and acted as a mediator in Latin American political disputes since leaving office in 2011.
The court last week lifted the secrecy of the investigation and ordered searches of Zapatero’s office on Madrid’s Calle Ferraz, opposite the PSOE headquarters, as well as the premises of his daughters’ companies.
