The arrest of the former president of SEPI strengthens the political seat of Montero and the judicial seat of Santos Cerdán

This Wednesday, the tide reached its maximum Maria Jesus Montero. Yesterday, the police arrested someone who was one of his closest associates, Vicente Fernández Guerreroformer president of SEPI.

The affair directly shakes the pillars on which Pedro Sanchez He supported the structure of the party and the government, with foundations in Andalusia, Navarre and the Basque Country.

And Vicente Fernández is the link between the first and second vice-president of the PSOE, and Santos Cerdanthe former organizational secretary of the PSOE recently released from prison.

Socialists were yesterday immersed in their efforts to respond to cases of sexual harassment when the Civil Guard unexpectedly arrested Leire Diez and Vicente Fernández for a previously unknown case that is under investigation by the Central Court number 6 of the National Court.

Since the case was declared secret, it is still unclear what events motivated the arrests and when they took place, but everything points to a new case of a close collaborator who ends up being prosecuted.

Leire Díez, known as the “plumber” of the PSOE, is already charged with alleged threats against prosecutors in another report.

There is fear within the government and the party about what he might say, as he has already shown a tendency to boast about his activities.

Vicente Fernández was president of the Spanish Company of Commercial Participations between June 2018 and October 2019.

The importance of this arrest is that Fernández was the right arm of María Jesús Montero. He served as Auditor General of the Junta de Andalucía when she was Minister of the Treasury.

For this reason, his arrest strengthens the political headquarters of Montero, already strongly affected by the poorly resolved scandal of Paco Salazar.

In 2018, when Pedro Sánchez won the motion of censure against Mariano Rajoyappointed Montero Minister of Finance, to which SEPI depends, and put Vicente Fernández at the head of this entity, because he was in his strict confidence.

The position of president of the SEPI is one of the most sensitive in the Central Administration, because it all companies with state participation dependsuch as Correos, Navantia, Agencia EFE, Tragsa, Mercasa or Hunosa, among others. More than a hundred companies, including those in which the state has even minimal participation.

In 2023, the SEPI group recorded a turnover of 5,908 million euros and a book value of 15,700 million euros. That is to say, its president necessarily occupies a position of the highest confidence of the head of the Treasury.

In the case of Fernández, this relationship with the current vice president was recognized and visible. So much so that when in October 2019 he was charged with what is known as Aznalcóllar case, Montero decided to leave the position vacant.

He appointed a vice-president to head SEPI, while waiting for his colleague to be dismissed. This is why he only named his successor in February 2021, when Fernández was finally prosecuted.

That Aznalcóllar case It ended precisely this Monday, when the sentence was made public and Fernández was acquitted. Two days later, he was arrested for another case, this time examined by the National Court.

Fernandez to Servinabar

It is then that the connection between María Jesús Montero, Santos Cerdán and Vicente Fernández becomes evident.

The former president of SEPI signs for the Navarrese company Servinabar, of Cerdán and Antxón Alonsowho would have paid the expenses of the former organizational secretary of the PSOE and who would have benefited from public rewards.

To do this, he requested authorization from the Office of Conflicts and Interests, since he was still within the two-year incompatibility period after leaving public service.

Fernández was employed by Servinabar between May 2021 and February 2023. That is, he was hired by Cerdán’s company shortly after Montero took up his position as head of public companies.

He received from Servinabar, as a specialist in public tenders, more than 100,000 euros in the barely two years he was on the payroll, compared to almost 300,000 he earned annually at SEPI.

At this point, his arrest strengthens the judicial siege against Santos Cerdán, released from prison three weeks ago after having spent almost five months there on behalf of Koldo affair.

On the other hand, Vicente Fernández established a friendship with Leire Díez when she was responsible for communications at ENUSAa public company linked to the nuclear sector belonging to SEPI.

THE plumber He helped him by trying to have information published in different media (including EL ESPAÑOL) that favored him in the Aznalcóllar procedure. This was part of María Jesús Montero’s plan to have her collaborator removed from office and reinstated as head of SEPI.

In turn, Leire Díez, according to various testimonies, collaborated with Santos Cerdán when he was responsible for organizing the PSOE to collect compromising information.

In other words, Leire Díez and Vicente Fernández worked at the same time for Cerdán, with different positions and tasks. Since then, they have been friends and collaborated.

This Wednesday, they were arrested at the same time by the UCO for possible crimes of fraud, falsification of documents, embezzlement, influence peddling and prevarication.