The judge of the Audiencia Nacional, José Luis Calama, has rejected the attempt by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to remove from the Plus Ultra case the police report that analyzes three transfers totaling 200,000 euros received from the Peruvian consultancy Focus Social Research. The resolution keeps this line of investigation open and supports the actions of the Police's Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit.
The former president's defense argued that the UDEF had exceeded the limits of the case by studying a professional relationship that was not among the initial facts of the investigation. It also denounced that the inquiries allowed for an indiscriminate review of all his private and professional activity.
Calama rejects both objections. In the order issued this Wednesday, he states that "there has been no illegitimate intrusion into privacy" and that "there is no trace of a general investigation" into Zapatero's life. The transfers, he explains, appeared when analyzing documentation obtained with judicial authorization within already open proceedings.
The magistrate thus keeps the UDEF report within the procedure and considers that its content is sufficiently relevant to determine whether the payments corresponded to legitimate advisory work or were linked to influence peddling with the authorities of Bolivia.
The resolution does not declare it proven that the 200,000 euros were a commission nor does it confirm any crime. The judge only concludes that there are data that must be investigated and that the investigation cannot ignore them because they were not foreseen when the case began.
The judge rejects the existence of a general cause
The brief presented by Zapatero's defense demanded that the police report be withdrawn and returned to the UDEF. His lawyers alleged that Focus Social Research did not appear among the companies initially related to the Plus Ultra case and that the analysis of these payments meant opening an investigation without clear limits.
Zapatero maintains that the transfers come from a legal professional activity related to consulting, conferences, international mediation, and academic tasks. His defense also questions the Police's construction of a thesis about an alleged criminal organization led by the former president without a judicial resolution having confirmed that hypothesis.
Calama argues that this reasoning stems from a mistaken idea about how a criminal investigation works. The judge recalls that a case can advance when already authorized proceedings allow for the discovery of new facts with possible criminal relevance.
"The perimeter of the investigation is not a closed or static space," the resolution states. For the magistrate, converting the first indictment order into a barrier that prevents examining any subsequent evidence would mean denying the very purpose of the judicial investigation.
The instructor also differentiates this situation from a prospective investigation, which consists of opening a case against a person without concrete evidence to review all their conduct and check if any crime appears. In his opinion, that has not happened here.
The investigation was already open regarding specific facts, and it was the examination of documentation legally incorporated into the procedure that allowed the detection of economic movements. Therefore, the UDEF would not have initiated a general audit of Zapatero's businesses on its own.
"No unauthorized diligence has been carried out," Calama emphasizes. The agents merely, according to the order, examined a flow of money whose amount, origin, and context can help determine whether there were illicit considerations, undue influences, or economic returns related to the investigated operations.
The contract with Focus and the dealings with Bolivia
The new line of the case revolves around the contract that Zapatero signed in May 2024 with Focus Social Research, a Peruvian company formally dedicated to market research, communication, and business consulting.
The agreement contemplated an annual remuneration of 200,000 euros, in addition to per diems and travel expenses. Investigators located a first transfer of 100,000 euros in July 2024 and two others of 50,000 euros each in June 2025.
The UDEF maintains that Focus would have acted as an interposed company and that the true interests behind the commission would correspond to Grupo Gloria and its cement subsidiary SOBOCE, which had large economic disputes with the Bolivian Administration.
Agents are investigating various meetings and communications held before and after the contract was signed. These include meetings between Zapatero and business representatives and authorities in Bolivia, including then-president Luis Arce.
According to the police theory, the former president would have intervened to favor the interests of the Peruvian group in a conflict related to a resolution that obliged SOBOCE to pay around 107 million dollars to the public cement company FANCESA.
On May 30, 2025, a Bolivian court upheld an appeal filed by SOBOCE and temporarily suspended that obligation. Weeks later, the last two transfers to Zapatero, each for 50,000 euros, were ordered.
The Police consider that this sequence allows for an investigation into a possible relationship between the efforts made, the judicial outcome, and the payments. They also maintain that the analyzed documentation barely shows any advisory work provided directly to Focus, beyond the signing of the contract and the issuance of invoices.
The defense rejects this interpretation and affirms that Zapatero carried out real and declared professional work. The judge has not yet resolved this dispute, although he maintains that the explanation offered must be verified during the investigation.
That the former president regularly participates in conferences or receives remuneration for consulting does not prevent analyzing the specific nature of certain income, Calama reasons. The investigation must clarify what services were contracted, who benefited from them, and whether the payments had any relation to the actions carried out in Bolivia.
The report will continue in the Plus Ultra case
The main investigation studies an alleged influence peddling network around various economic operations, including the public rescue of 53 million euros granted to the airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic. Zapatero is listed as investigated for his alleged role in that structure, an accusation he rejects.
The order known this Wednesday consolidates the path related to the Gloria Group and allows the UDEF to continue examining the transfers and actions attributed to the former president. The defense can appeal the decision through a reform appeal before the judge himself and, subsequently, in appeal.
In parallel, the Tax Agency has corrected an error in a document sent to the court regarding the tax inspection opened on Zapatero and his circle. Hacienda had mistakenly placed the investigated period between 2002 and 2024, when the correct dates are 2022 and 2024.
The tax inspection affects the former president, members of his family, and various companies linked to his economic activity. The Tax Agency has requested to temporarily suspend its actions to avoid interference with the criminal investigation and to facilitate the National Court's access to the seized documentation first.
Calama still has to resolve that request. Meanwhile, the report on the 200,000 euros will remain incorporated into the procedure and the Police will be able to continue delving into the contract with Focus Social Research, the efforts made before the Bolivian authorities, and the destination of the payments received by Zapatero.
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