Spain’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has stepped up its investigation into former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero over an alleged large-scale money laundering scheme involving shell companies and frontmen in several countries, according to Spanish media reports published on May 12, 2026.
The probe had reached an advanced stage and pointed to hidden assets and cross-border movements of funds linked to the former Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) leader, who governed the EU member state between 2004 and 2011.
According to El Confidencial, investigators were examining business activities Zapatero is said to have developed in secret for years, allegedly collecting illicit commissions for acting as an intermediary before governments and public administrations to benefit firms in his circle with subsidies and contracts. The same outlet reported that the fraudulent proceeds were then channelled through shell companies via simulated commercial operations to launder the money.
The case is being handled by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the Civil Guard’s UCO investigative unit. Libertad Digital journalist Miguel Ángel Pérez told esRadio that prosecutors regarded Zapatero as a “key piece” and possible intermediary in the alleged illegal financing of PSOE via Venezuela’s regime under Nicolás Maduro.
According to that account, the former leader would have operated through frontmen and foreign bank accounts — including one reportedly in Russia — to channel funds out of Caracas.
The new line of inquiry runs in parallel with the so-called Plus Ultra case, centred on a €53 million state bailout granted in March 2021 by Pedro Sánchez’s Government to a struggling airline with Venezuelan shareholders. Spain’s High Court (Audiencia Nacional) formally took over that case in March 2026, under judge José Luis Calama, citing its transnational scope.
Conservative daily El Debate has reported that prosecutors in France and Switzerland alerted Spanish authorities in 2024 to an alleged criminal organisation laundering funds out of Venezuela through Europe, partly via the Swiss bank M Baer Merchant Bank AG, which has been flagged by the US Treasury Department over Venezuelan, Russian and Iranian flows.
Zapatero’s name has been linked to the Plus Ultra investigation through Julio Martínez Martínez, known as “Julito”, a close personal friend of the ex-PM. According to newspaper El Español, Martínez collected €458,000 from Plus Ultra over five years through three companies and paid Zapatero a similar amount through his firm Análisis Relevante SL for consultancy work.
Zapatero has told a Spanish Senate inquiry commission that he received €600,000 from Análisis Relevante in exchange for “oral and written reports”, details of which he declined to disclose to the chamber.
The former leader has denied any wrongdoing and has maintained that all his consultancy services were legal and corresponded to real work performed, according to El Confidencial.
The offences under investigation by Anti-Corruption carry penalties of between six months and nine years in prison for money laundering, and between one and eight years for membership of a criminal organisation. Further charges could follow.
