The UCO asks the judge for PSOE and PSC banking movements across six entities in 2024 and 2025
Judge Pedraz accedes to the UCO's request to obtain banking records of the PSOE from Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Abanca, Unicaja and Sabadell. The unit also demands comprehensive tax reports from the PSC and several companies involved in the Leire case.
Judge Pedraz authorises a complete financial examination of the PSOE in the Leire case
Judge Santiago Pedraz has acceded to a request from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard to obtain all banking movements of the PSOE across six entities—Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Abanca, Unicaja and Sabadell—for the 2024 and 2025 financial years, according to legal sources. The request forms part of the investigation into the so-called Leire case, which Pedraz is keeping partially under court secrecy. This was first reported by SER and confirmed by El País, which had access to a UCO letter dated last Monday.
The request is not limited to direct banking records. The UCO also asks that the judge require the Tax Agency to provide a comprehensive tax report on the PSOE and its sister party in Catalonia, the PSC, as well as on various companies and individuals allegedly involved in the scheme. Among them are former PSOE organisational secretary Gaspar Zarrías, lawyers Ismael Oliver and Jacobo Teijelo, and companies such as Zaño Sociedad Consultores, a legal practice and a commercial company belonging to Oliver, Crónica Libre, and in the case of the PSC, Grupo IKI—from which "at least" five companies are mentioned.
Comprehensive oversight of financial information
For all these subjects, the UCO demands data on bank accounts with account holders and authorised signatories, cash movements, cheques, investment funds, securities, insurance, urban and rural real estate, property transfers, mortgages, tax filings, hired safe-deposit boxes and assets abroad. It also requests information on form 750—linked to tax regularisation processes—, currency trading, imports and exports, single administrative documents (DUA), Treasury payments, intra-community operations, pension plans and accounts with deposits exceeding three million euros, a threshold that the Tax Agency uses to detect movements of particular relevance.
The UCO goes further and asks the judge to allow its agents to gather information directly from banks "in a direct manner", without the need for further intermediate judicial requests. The letter expressly requests that banks provide the unit with "all information, movements and balances held in their databases" and that agents "may request and receive whatever clarifications, additions or supplementary documentation (...) they require for the clarification of the facts". The UCO justifies this request for operational autonomy in "the objective of accelerating the investigations".
The background: payments to Leire Díez and the alleged scheme
The inquiries point to a comprehensive investigation into assets and finances concerning the payment circuits linked to the alleged scheme. According to the case file, in 2024 the alleged PSOE collaborator Leire Díez began to express to those around her that she wanted Santos Cerdán to pay her, to whom the judge attributes on a prima facie basis having placed the party's structure at the disposal of the scheme. Díez raised objections to the payment being channelled through "Gaspar's [Zarrías's] office", but ended up being hired in June 2024 and receiving payments of 4,000 euros per month.
The judge considers that subsequently another mechanism was arranged with the same purpose: to use two companies administered by lawyer Ismael Oliver. The PSOE paid Estudio Jurídico I. Oliver & Partners an amount of 27,225 euros, but Oliver used another of his own companies, Oliver Gruppe S.L., to transfer those funds to Leire Díez, according to the case file. The judge interprets that this arrangement was intended to "break the traceability of the funds".
The inclusion of Crónica Libre Group in the request appears to derive from a payment made to journalist Patricia López—already deceased—for an amount "close to 20,000 euros", according to the data contained in the proceedings.
The PSC denies having received a judicial request
The PSC issued a statement—its third since 29th—stating that it has not yet received any judicial request and defending that the party will continue to collaborate with transparency. The Catalan socialists maintain that they act at all times in compliance with electoral law, as reflected in successive reports from the Court of Auditors and the Catalan Audit Office, bodies which, according to the note, have all the data.
The breadth of the UCO's letter, which covers two complete financial years, multiple banking entities and a dozen legal and natural persons, suggests that the investigation into the Leire case is aimed at a comprehensive reconstruction of the economic flows of those involved. Judge Pedraz is keeping this aspect of the case under court secrecy.
Source: El País