The confessions of the alleged frontman of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the executives of the airline Plus Ultra deal a fatal blow to the defense strategy of the former Prime Minister, who categorically denied on June 17 before the National Court judge José Luis Calama having mediated in the rescue of the company.
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In the collaboration statements with Justice – previewed yesterday by EL MUNDO – both the defense of Julio Martínez Martínez and the owner of Plus Ultra, Julio Martínez Sola, and the CEO, Roberto Roselli, confirm the main suspicions of the investigators. Zapatero acted as a commission agent taking advantage of his influence as former head of the Executive and former secretary general of the Socialist Party and received large commissions through the company Análisis Relevante.
Furthermore, the confession of the Plus Ultra executives – whose statements were submitted in order to “assist the action of Justice” – closes the door to the strategy developed by Zapatero’s lawyer, the professor Víctor Moreno Catena, who has played the only card of nullity of actions in this judicial procedure. The reason is that in both statements – of 56 and 57 pages in length – the executives confirm the messages that were provided to the case by the United States about the motive of the former Plus Ultra shareholder, Rodolfo Reyes. These testimonies ratifying point by point the content of those phone messages allow including that information de facto through the confession of the investigated in the procedure.
Additionally, in the collaboration statement of Julio Martínez Martínez, summoned to testify today at the National Court, it is revealed that the modus operandi of the company Análisis Relevante with Plus Ultra was repeated with other companies: Softgestor, Inteligencia Prospectiva, and Aldesa.
The signing of an apartment in Moncloa
It all began in 2011, when a mutual friend, Javier de Paz, informed the businessman about the acquisition of a property in Vera (Almería), owned by the Rodríguez Zapatero couple. After Julito Martínez’s acceptance, “the deed of sale was signed at the Moncloa Palace.” “Shortly after” and “given the passion for sports,” among the trio Zapatero, De Paz, and Julito – as he is known in business circles – a friendship relationship was established.
According to the facts report sent to the judge, the businessman learned of “the existence of Plus Ultra” in May 2020, “when Mr. Zapatero informed him that he would receive a call from the executives of this company.”
Martínez Martínez states that “on May 16, 2020, Mr. Martínez Sola and Roselli contacted him and told him about the company’s economic problems, which Zapatero had already informed him about,” as well as “the need to seek financing.” Regarding the rescue, the whistleblower emphasizes that he “had no possibility whatsoever of obtaining anything by himself, much less public or private financing. His mission was to mediate between client and consultant. As a consultant, it was Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero who set the steps to follow.”
Likewise, Martínez admits that the company Análisis Relevante “was established with the purpose of providing support, advice, and other services in the field of organization and management” so that the main consultant, Zapatero, could issue reports on strategy, international relations, and give lectures as clients required. “After several meetings, it was agreed that the partners of the company would be Mr. Martínez Martínez with a 75% stake, and Sergio Sánchez with the remaining 25%. (…) Mr. Zapatero was left out of the shareholding and formal bodies of the company, but he was the one who led it and decided all those matters of strategy and client acquisition.”
Furthermore, the Alicante businessman highlights that “precisely because of his status as former Prime Minister and his personal and professional relationships,” Zapatero attracted the four companies that contracted with Análisis Relevante until 2025.
The ‘kickback’ for the rescue
Martínez also confessed that in July 2020 a contract was signed between Plus Ultra and Análisis Relevante “in which fees were agreed upon, set at 5,000 euros per month plus the corresponding VAT. Regardless of the contract wording, the reality was that the fees to be charged were for the advice that Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero had been providing since May. Additionally, in consideration for the services rendered and the success of the operation, on January 19, 2021, a contract was signed between Plus Ultra and the company Idella Consulenza Estrategica S.L., whereby the former committed to pay 1% of the financing obtained to Idella, in the event that the aid requested from the Strategic Companies Solvency Support Fund managed by SEPI was finally approved.”
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The businessman’s defense, exercised by María Dolores Márquez de Prado, explains that “during the months following the contract signing” his client’s work mainly consisted of accompanying Plus Ultra for “obtaining the requested financing.” “Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero was promptly informed of all the steps being taken and, finally, on February 26, 2021, he informed our client that SEPI was going to grant the credit requested by Plus Ultra.” The credit approval was granted at the Council of Ministers on March 9, 2021.
When on June 17 the former president categorically denied before the judge having exercised influence in favor of Plus Ultra neither before any SEPI member nor any public official, Julito also explains that “due to the media pressure at that time regarding the public financing granted to the airline, it was decided to defer the payment over time, until 2026,” and that part of those amounts would be invoiced through other of his companies. “In total, the amount paid as fees for mediating in obtaining the public aid amounted to approximately 1% of the amount obtained as agreed,” he adds.
The businessman, who will give an extensive statement today responding to the judge, the prosecutor, and his defense, also explains that after the success of “the first operation, the professional relationship between Análisis Relevante and Plus Ultra was maintained,” for work related to issues to be resolved in Venezuela due to technical and logistical difficulties of the company.
The call from the former president
In the case of the Plus Ultra executives, they added that, with the difficulties derived from the Covid-19 pandemic, it was the Venezuelan businessman Rodolfo Reyes – former Plus Ultra shareholder – who told Martínez Sola that he should call Manuel Fajardo, considered Zapatero’s name in Venezuela, “to explain the urgent need the company had to receive essential financial aid.”
When Fajardo and the Plus Ultra president spoke, he told him that “José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero could help him and that he and Julio Martínez Martínez would get in touch with him.” Indeed, “the next day, April 30, 2020, Mr. Martínez Sola received a call from a hidden number, which turned out to be José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The conversation lasted approximately 10 minutes and, during it, Martínez Sola made a brief presentation to the former president about the company(…) Upon that request, Zapatero stated that his intervention could be helpful and that he would make the appropriate arrangements.” He also told the Plus Ultra president that “from then on communications would be maintained with a trusted person, Julio Martínez Martínez.”
The airline officials admit that although they never “had conclusive evidence of the specific actions taken to influence or favor the granting of the rescue to Plus Ultra by SEPI,” the truth is that, “as a desperate measure, it was assumed that Plus Ultra had to contract with Mr. Martínez Martínez for that purpose, aware that he had the relationship with Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero.” Furthermore, they confess that they were aware that they would have to pay a “kickback” for the arrangements made by Zapatero and Julito to access the 53 million euro rescue granted by the Council of Ministers in March 2021.
“Mr. Martínez Sola and Mr. Roberto Roselli were fully aware that Mr. Martínez Martínez and Mr. Zapatero did intend to charge for the arrangements to be made (so the kickback will come from there), which was assumed by both as a necessary evil to save the company, even if they did not know what internal agreements Mr. Martínez Martínez and Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero might have,” they emphasize.
In this regard, they detail that “the aforementioned 1% for the rescue was broken down into the following payments made to the different companies controlled by Mr. Martínez Martínez, paying 249,000 euros to Análisis Relevante, 98,617.53 euros to Voli Analítica SL, 110,799.47 to IOT Domotic Europe SL, and finally, although Mr. Martínez Martínez initially intended to receive the full amount up to the committed 530,000 euros, he accepted that the payments included an in-kind payment valued at 69,000 euros consisting of business class tickets that Plus Ultra made available to him during 2021 and subsequent years.” “Although formally a sort of formal closure of the figures remained to be done, materially the amount paid fulfilled the aforementioned 1%,” they conclude.
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