Sandro Rosell, key player in Leire Díez scheme to recruit prosecutor Grinda
The former Barcelona FC president introduced Leire Díez to Villarejo's lawyer and participated in an operation to "recruit" Anti-Corruption prosecutor José Grinda.
Sandro Rosell, key player in Leire Díez scheme to recruit prosecutor Grinda
Former FC Barcelona president Sandro Rosell appears in the record of the Leire Díez case as one of the operatives who facilitated the access of the former socialist activist to the lawyer of retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and who participated in efforts to "recruit" Anti-Corruption prosecutor José Grinda. This is revealed by messages intercepted by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, according to El País.
The judicial file is filled with names of prosecutors, judges and police officers from whom Leire Díez sought to obtain compromising information, as well as business people and lawyers linked to the alleged scheme led by former PSOE Organisation Secretary Santos Cerdán. Rosell is among those who joined this activity after meeting Cerdán and Díez in June 2024. "Today I've been with some people from football who are willing to help," the Catalan businessman wrote after that first contact.
Introduction to Villarejo's lawyer
The first time Díez contacted Antonio García Cabrera, Villarejo's lawyer, was on 26 July 2024. "I'm the person who needs to meet with you, I think Sandro has already mentioned it to you. I'd like to talk to you whenever you can," she wrote to him. The following day, Díez informed Rosell that she already had an appointment: "I've arranged to meet with the beret lawyer at 11.30 on Monday." The UCO located 1,304 WhatsApp messages between the two, corresponding to the period between June 2024 and December 2025, the month in which the former activist was arrested by order of the National Court.
On 20 June 2024, a day after meeting Cerdán and Díez, Rosell responded to a message from her with these words: "Hello Leire. Same to you, you and Santos seemed great to me! Yes, whenever you want I'll tell you what we can do because today I've been with several people from football who are willing to help! They like the idea. As soon as our guy has the info I'll go back to Madrid and we'll see what we do!"
The background to Rosell: 645 days in preventive detention
Rosell spent 645 days in preventive detention between May 2017 and February 2019, accused of criminal organisation and money laundering. He was ultimately acquitted, and the National Court subsequently set compensation of €232,500 for the time he spent unjustly in prison. Sources close to the businessman point out that, since then, his main interest has been to find out what lay behind that investigation. With that objective in mind, he would have sought even to contact Villarejo himself.
Those previous inquiries would have made Rosell a useful figure for Díez and for businessman Javier Pérez-Dolset, also under investigation at the highest level of these proceedings for his alleged involvement in manoeuvres designed to obstruct the course of justice. "I will always be close to people who build," Díez wrote to him. "I'm very good at 'plumbing'," the former activist added.
The operation to "recruit" Grinda
Rosell, Díez and Pérez-Dolset shared a WhatsApp group called "Mas Martí-Girona". On 10 March 2025, Rosell informed the group that Grinda, identified as "G" by the UCO, had contacted him. "G has contacted me because he wants to talk to me, don't believe what they say about him...!!! Should I meet with him, right? Let's see what he tells me?", the businessman wrote.
The meeting with Grinda took place in a context marked by a prior complaint by the prosecutor. Grinda had informed his superior, chief prosecutor Alejandro Luzón, that a journalist had approached him with a written offer on a piece of paper: in exchange for helping to close certain cases and providing information about the origin of the Rosell case or compromising material about Luzón himself, he was being offered a post abroad and assistance with his judicial problems. Grinda indicated that the journalist had claimed that Leire Díez was behind that proposal.
Days before the meeting between Rosell and Grinda, Díez gave him precise instructions. "Remember, listen more than you talk," she wrote to him on 16 March 2025, "but without mentioning Santos or me. We've talked a lot this weekend and maybe I need to protect myself a bit because I have to be dealing with other things. We'd send a lawyer". Rosell responded with the script he was planning to follow: "I'll tell him, 'Pepe, you're in trouble, it's in your interest to negotiate with the Government, I'll tell you who with'". Pérez-Dolset suggested involving former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as a cover: "Talk to him, but always making reference to his offer to Z. In case he records you, let it be clear that he started this."
The parallel strategy with Grinda's complainant
The record reveals that, whilst Díez was trying to approach Grinda through intermediaries such as Rosell, she was also maintaining a direct channel with the woman who had reported the prosecutor for an alleged sexual offence. According to the messages, Díez also sought employment for that person through PSOE contacts.
To a lawyer to whom she recounted that the meeting with Grinda was going to take place, Díez was explicit about her motivation: "There are things I do with greater or lesser passion, but this guy, I do it while holding my nose." The UCO found no messages either on the day of the supposed meeting or in the days after. The outlet has not been able to obtain the businessman's own account of these facts.
Source: El País