The alleged corruption plot was dismantled this month after the arrest of former socialist Leire Díez and the former president of the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), Vicente Fernández Guerrero, presumably started operating around the time the PSOE came to government in mid-2018. The investigation led by the Anticorruption Inspectorate and the Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) of the Civil Guard, and which is now being brought before the National Court, highlights that the alleged irregularities in the awarding of contracts and public subsidies date back to the time when Fernández was at the head of the public body and when the exconcejala of the PSOE began to occupy a position in the public company ENUSA Industrias Avanzadas SA, dependent precisely on SEPI.
Both are accused of allegedly committing crimes of fraud, falsification of documents, professional misconduct, influence peddling and embezzlement. The case, currently led by the head of Juzgado Central de Instrucción number 6, Antonio Piña, remains secret and it is expected that the investigation will continue throughout this jueves. In the province of Biscay, a third person was arrested, whose identity had not yet been released. This morning registrations began in companies in Madrid, Seville and Zaragoza, reports José Manuel Abad.
According to the details of the investigation, part of it centers on a Basque-Navarrese company, Cistec Technology, of which Leire Díez was advised between 2021 and 2023, just after leaving his position at ENUSA. Partly coinciding at this time with this position in the profession, the socialist ex-militant also held a public position, as director of Philately and Institutional Relations of Correos (2022 and 2024). Cistec only became involved in SEPI with a 25% stake in 2018, after Fernández joined this public body. Following this influx of public capital, the company received numerous subsidies and public money contracts, underline the sources consulted. The company has always denied any irregularity and clarified that, even though it occupied the town hall square, Díez did not receive any remuneration.
Another line of investigation is directed towards Seville and, more precisely, towards an inn located on the island of La Cartuja, Bar La Bola. This establishment has belonged since 2023 to a company allegedly controlled by the former president of SEPI. The consulted sources pointed out that after this arrival, the bar only had to record losses by charging large sums of money, which is why the UCO is investigating whether this could even be used to launder the money alleged to have been irregularly obtained by the conspiracy.
The Civil Guard also focuses on Fernández’s legacy, including everything that has been accumulated since his arrival at SEPI. According to research, she has registered under her name a floor of more than 300 square meters in a luxury urbanization in Puerta de Hierro, Madrid; of chalets in an exclusive urbanization in El Aljarafe (Seville); three properties in Marbella on the first and second line of the beach, garages and trash cans. Researchers’ estimates put the total at more than four million euros.
The researchers also forgot that Fernández worked between 2021 and 2023 as an external advisor to Servinabar 2000, the Navarre-based company in which the former Secretary of the PSOE Organization Santos Cerdán allegedly participated and that he is the key player in the Supreme Court investigation in which the latter is accused. former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos. In this case, there is documentation that details that this trader paid Fernández a gross salary of 68,632.48 euros in 2021 and another of 33,251 euros in 2023. In addition, the Hacienda de Navarra sent information that the construction company withheld taxes of 40,800 euros in 2022, even the documentation is not concrete on what I noticed during this exercise.
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