Judge Juan Carlos Peinadoin charge of the Court of Instruction number 41 of Madrid, has a report that proves that the businessman Carlos Barrabesa close friend of Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, It also benefited from public aid worth 8.1 million euros. These injections of state money were made, again, after a letter of recommendation from Begoña Gómez. This finding allows the magistrate to maintain a part of the investigation parallel to that carried out by the European Prosecutor’s Office, as detailed The debate.
The report was provided by Clean Hands and details a set of subsidies, loans and aid from the Official Credit Institute (ICO), dependent on the Ministry of Economy. In total, this aid amounts to 8.155.865,30 euros. The report qualifies this amount as “unpublished information” that goes in parallel to the already known awards of public institutions such as Renfe, Red.es, Icex, the Higher Sports Council or the State Foundation for Employment Training, among others. The document lists all the Barrabés companies that have benefited from public items.
The company that stands out the most is Barrabés Ski Mountain SLdedicated to the marketing of sports clothing, which received 4.3 million euros. This business, linked to a friend of Sánchez’s wife, is a supplier to the Ministry of the Interior. The person responsible for it, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, continues to buy Civil Guard mountain uniforms from this company, despite the fact that, on at least one occasion, defective material was offered, as alerted by the contracting technicians and revealed The debate. All aid was awarded starting in 2020, the year in which Begoña Gómez wrote the letter of recommendation to the businessman.
Another relevant company is the consulting firm Innova Next SLwhich was endorsed by Sánchez’s wife before the public administration to obtain two contracts totaling eight million euros. This company has received only 1.5 million euros in aid. All aid was approved by the ICO, an organization that during the pandemic enabled loans for entrepreneurs affected by the coronavirus crisis. However, the consultancy’s accounting figures show that at that time it was in good financial health.
In 2020, the critical year of the health crisis, Innova Next recorded 22.6 million euros and declared profits to the Treasury of 127,451.94 euros. In total, they were approved up to eleven files to transfer ICO credits to Barrabéswith varied amounts but predominantly 640,000 euros, 480,000 euros and 240,000 euros.
Another company that received a significant amount of money was El Cañonazo Multimedia SL, to which Barrabés was linked as a “representative.” This film company received 1,034,750 euros in aid. It follows Ixorigue Technologies SLwith 653,272 euros, a consultancy in the livestock sector from which Barrabés separated days before the support received from the wife of the chief executive was made public.
The European Prosecutor’s Office has asked Judge Peinado for part of the investigation into the Begoña Gómez case due to the involvement of European funds. However, With the new report in his possession, which shows that a large part of the funds received by Barrabés came from the Ministry of Economy, the magistrate can continue investigating possible cases of influence peddling or corruption in business.
Due, The magistrate has decided to suspend the testimony of several witnesses, among them the CEO of Red.es, David Cierco; the former general director of Red, Alberto Martínez Lacambra; the economist and lawyer of Innova Next SL, Luis Antonio Martín Bernardos; the director of the legal department of Red.es, Ignacio Espejo Saavedra Hernández; and Luis Prieto Cuerdo, director of Economics at Red.es.
Nevertheless, Begoña Gómez’s statement, scheduled for July 5, still stands. Recently, Sánchez’s wife has asked her Honor, through her lawyer, why she is being investigated now that part of the investigation has been assumed by the European Public Ministry.