Koldo Case

The Koldo Case (Spanish: ''Caso Koldo'') or Ábalos Case (''Caso Ábalos''), is an ongoing corruption prosecution conducted by the Spanish Supreme Court that began on 28 February 2024. The case is centred around former transport minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor Koldo García Izaguirre. The case involves several political figures, primarily allies of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and was originally sparked by questions over the purchase of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over time, the case started to be linked to a series of other scandals which had come about during Sánchez's second and third ministries, including: the Delcygate scandal of 2020, in which the Venezuelan minister met with key government figures despite being under international sanctions; an ongoing case surrounding Sánchez's wife Begoña Gómez; and a series of affairs by Ábalos which ended in his relationships being employed in government despite having little experience, and receiving large benefits.

Background

Spain was one of the countries seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a significant impact on the economy and Spanish society.

In April 2022, the Prosecution Ministry opened an investigation into ''Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas'' (SGAE), a business support firm, over six suspicious public contracts awarded to it for the sale of health equipment in the COVID-19 pandemic, which were not subject to the usual bidding process out of urgent need.

# 21 March 2020: Ports of the State - a subsidiary of the Ministry of Transport - purchases 8 million masks for €24.2 million.
# 27 March 2020: Adif - another subsidiary of the same government department - purchases 5 million masks for €12.5 million.
# 20 April 2020: The Secretariat of State for Security - under the Ministry of the Interior - purchases health equipment for €3.5 million.
# 22 April 2020: The Government of the Canary Islands pays €7.3 million through its public health body for masks.
# 4 May 2020: Another purchase by the Canarian government for masks, this time for €5 million.
# 8 May 2020: The Government of the Balearic Islands pays €3.7 million through its public health body for masks.

SGAE invoiced the government for €54 million in at least eight public health contracts throughout the pandemic, netting a profit of €17 million through three departments and two PSOE-controlled regional governments. It was alleged that using SGAE led to a sophisticated network of companies based in Luxembourg and Brazil, through the latter's accounts with the bank Itaú Unibanco. Through this, it was alleged that it would become difficult to trace the money back.

Even in 2020, the lawyer Ramiro Grau Morancho had warned Sánchez's government that using SGAE as the sole supplier of health equipment to Spain was questionable, given that they had no prior experience in such departments. He also referred the case to the Office of the Attorney General and the Supreme Court, which dismissed his concerns.

Investigation

Operación Delorme

On 6 September 2023, the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office filed charges to the Audiencia Nacional against seven public figures, including Koldo García Izaguirre, the former advisor to transport minister José Luis Ábalos. The judge Ismael Moreno Chamarro agreed to take on the case.

Arrests

On 21 February 2024, the Civil Guard arrested 20 people including Koldo García and his wife Patricia Úriz, on suspicion of misusing his relationships with Ábalos and other key government figures to obtain public contracts for SGAE, and taking commission on it. The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office also noted that he had almost quadrupled his net worth, particularly in the period 2020-2022, through questionable real estate acquisitions, such as three flats in Benidorm, worth €1.5 million. García was alleged to have used third parties, such as close family members, to hide the source of his newfound wealth.

Regarding the other eighteen arrested, fourteen were released the same day, while the other four were released the day after. García's brother, Joseba, was one of those arrested, and the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office had suspected that his brother's actions had given him 27 times his net worth. He was released the next day.

European Commission investigation

After the scandal in Spain came to light, the European Commission launched an investigation in June 2023 to determine whether European Union funds were misused in the corruption scandal. Of particular note to European investigators are the contracts supplied to the regional governments in the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands in April and May 2020 respectively. The Ciudadanos party in the European Parliament reported the potential illicit use of European Regional Development Fund money to buy health equipment during the pandemic to the European Public Prosecutor's Office. In the May 2023 regional elections, both the Canary and the Balearic Islands flipped from the PSOE to the PP.

On 26 February 2024, Spanish judge Moreno Chamarro ordered that a copy of the case from the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office be sent to the EPPO, along with a report into the awarding of contracts to SGAE, after the order of secrecy around the investigation was lifted.

On 4 March 2024, the EPPO announced that it would investigate the Canaries and Balearic governments' purchase of masks, and Audiencia Nacional judge Manuel García-Castellón agreed to hear the case. While García-Castellón would ultimately judge the case, European prosecutors rather than Spanish ones would lead the investigation. On 14 March 2024, Johannes Hahn, the European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, promised that the scrutiny would be rigorous to protect the integrity of member states' contributions and Monika Hohlmeier asked the Spanish government to collaborate fully with the European investigation. During this time, the new PP government in the Balearic Islands let the claim against the purchase of defective masks during the pandemic expire.

On 9 and 10 April 2024, the EPPO seized a series of documents relating to the purchase of SGAE's masks, confirming that the Balearic government spent €3.7 million and the Canaries €12 million. Overall, European investigators suspected illegalities in €32 million worth of mask purchases. An advance of €2 million was paid to a company with no prior experience in health equipment for a million masks which never came. The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office later advised European investigators to narrow the investigation solely to contracts which affected European payments, rather than all of SGAE's contracts.

Case returned to Audiencia Nacional

On 26 June 2024, the Supreme Court handed the case to the Audiencia Nacional, refusing to hear it as EU financial interests were not directly affected.

On 8 October 2024, the Central Operative Unit of the Guardia Civil handed a report to judges suggesting that former minister José Luis Ábalos had a large role in the case. Ábalos had received various property gifts, such as a chalet, from Victor de Aldama, the head of SGAE. The Central Operative Unit suggested the relationship between Ábalos and De Aldama went far beyond the contracts handed out in the pandemic, alleging De Aldama leveraged his position to support the Spanish government's bailout of airline Air Europa for €475 million in 2020. The report also touched on the ''Delcygate'' scandal in 2020, where Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodríguez met Ábalos and De Aldama in Madrid despite both knowing that the former was banned from the Schengen Area under sanctions against Nicolás Maduro's government. The report revealed that Pedro Sánchez did know about the visit, contrary to his statements at the time. On 23 October 2024, the Supreme Court ordered Ábalos' indictment due to his status as a person of interest. De Aldama was in prison for other fraud charges relating to having defrauded the Spanish Treasury hundreds of millions through his sale of gasoline.

On 21 November 2024, De Aldama agreed to testify voluntarily to Moreno. De Aldama said that he had given bribes to PSOE organisation secretary Santos Cerdán (€15,000), then-Finance Minister María Jesús Montero (€25,000), to Koldo García (€200,000) and to Ábalos (€400,000). De Aldama also alleged that Sánchez himself had asked around to get to know him better, and had invited him to a meeting to thank him for his assistance. He said he also met minister Teresa Ribera and Begoña Gómez, Sánchez's wife. He also said that he took part in Delcy Rodríguez's visit, organising a dinner and inviting several ministers as well as Sánchez himself. That same day judge Santiago Pedraz tentatively released De Aldama for his co-operation in the investigation.

On 9 April 2025, the Central Operative Unit published another document revealing that Javier Hidalgo, the chief executive of Globalia, the owners of Air Europa, had asked Begoña Gómez personally to carry out the bailout of Air Europa. Víctor de Aldama said in a conversation with Izaguirre that " idalgois very much screwed over by this, he's trying to get his life back and he's just called Begoña". Hidalgo and Gómez held two secret meetings afterwards. According to the Guardia Civil, Ábalos also took part in the negotiations for the Air Europa bailout, receiving a three-week stay in a Marbella chalet as a thank-you gift from Globalia.

The report also implicated Jéssica, Ábalos' partner in an affair, while she was working at public mobility and transportation company INECO, as having mediated conversations between Isabel Pardo de Vera, the then-president of ADIF, and Izaguirre. The first message, on 11 February 2019, was documented in which Izaguirre says: "Just one thing: call the girl so she can start the formalities so Joseba can be contracted as secretary, if not José will cut my balls." According to UCO, Jéssica had lived for three years in a flat in the Plaza de España in Madrid, paid for by the group as a thank-you to Ábalos. Pardo de Vedra had also taken part in a renegotiation of the contract in November 2019. That year, Ábalos also asked Izaguirre to hire another former partner, Claudia Montes, a former ''Miss Asturias'', at the Logirail public firm, asking on 8 October of that year: "You can't employ the one from Gijón at Renfe, ADIF or one of their subcontractors?"

On 12 May 2025, the ''El Mundo'' newspaper leaked WhatsApp messages from November 2021 in which Pedro Sánchez reached out to Ábalos, who had left his position the previous year, saying "Good morning, José Luís. It's been a while since we spoke. I'm writing to express my solidarity with you regarding the rumours that, unfortunately, we are seeing in the media. A hug." They appeared to be in sporadic contact, exchanging birthday messages and discussing politics, with Sánchez writing after the 2023 election: "Thank you, José Luís. The truth is that I've missed working with you many times. I've always valued your political credentials. Also your friendship. Finally, I send you a hug."

On 20 May, judge Moreno Chamarro charged Isabel Pardo de Vera, sister of Ana Pardo de Vera, a well-known journalist, with embezzlement of public funds and peddling of influence during her time as ADIF president. The decision to charge her came after her Supreme Court declaration as a witness, the evidence from the April Central Operative Unit report and her heading of the Anticorruption Ministry.

On 26 May, ''El Confidencial'' released audio messages in which Leire Díez Castro, a well-known left-wing journalist and a close friend of PSOE committee secretary Santos Cerdán, was shown to have met with lawyer Jacobo Teijelo and a range of businesspeople including Javier Pérez Dolset and Alejandro Hamlyn, to discuss finding information damaging to Antonio Balas Dávila, the police officer leading anti-corruption investigations into Ábalos, Gómez and David Sánchez (Pedro Sánchez's brother, whose role in the corruption scandal was coming into question). The mission also intended to discredit Juan Vicente Bonilla, an experienced Central Operative Unit investigator who had assisted in the 3% Case in Catalonia in 2005, against Carles Puigdemont. Leire Díez offered the entrepreneurs favourable contracts with government bodies. Two days later, ''El Confidencial'' released another message in which Pérez Dolset is heard to say "This is Pedro Sánchez, live with Cerdán, with Santos Cerdán and with Leire. And there are also very few other people who have the information and that's how it's going to stay." According to ''El Mundo'', Leire Díez also met with Rubén Villalba, who was also implicated in the investigation, to find out more sensitive information to throw out judicial investigations against them, and to silence Aldama. This appeared to corroborate an interview that Aldama gave to Ana Rosa Quintana in March of that year, in which he called all three of those involved in the first meeting "the fountains - or let's call them the sewers - of the PSOE, who are under Santos Cerdán's command." He continued: "They're getting in touch with businesspeople and people to offer them pardons and always to offer them favourable contracts, and when they testify against me, they'll lie about me."

On 12 June, judge Leopoldo Puente lifted the order of secrecy on a new Central Operative Unit report on 5 June, in which Cerdán was implicated as having handed out contracts for public works projects across the country, with Isabel Pardo de Vera's help, to friendly businesses such as Acciona SA, LIP and OPR, giving more than €600,000 in bribes in exchange. The Guardía Civil had found the statements on a hard drive at Ábalos' home, and described Cerdán as heading up a presumed criminal organisation, opening up the possibility that mystery money may have been handed to parties not just within the PSOE and those already involved, but outside parties and potentially serious illegal financing. The Central Operative Unit also alleged that Koldo asked Cerdán to employ another girlfriend in an affair, Nicole Neacsu, within Emfesa, linked to ADIF. Evidence also suggested that Pedro Sánchez himself may have found out, and known for some time, what Ábalos and Koldo were doing and its potential illegality.

References

{{Reflist

2024 controversies
2024 in politics
2024 in Spain
COVID-19 pandemic in Spain