Santos Cerdán identified as head of three corruption and judicial obstruction networks
The former PSOE organisation secretary faces three judicial cases that position him as the leader of networks involved in bribes, rigged contracts and pressure on judges.
Cerdán, the common link between three alleged criminal networks linked to the PSOE
The phrase former adviser Koldo García uttered on 6 May before the Supreme Court, at the end of his closing remarks in the trial of the Mascarillas case, proved to be a prophecy: "This is only the beginning". Koldo García, right-hand man to former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, said it before hearing the "judgment is ready" ruling that would return him to Soto del Real prison, where he remains. According to La Vanguardia, the following weeks went on to confirm the warning.
García had known Santos Cerdán since the years when both worked in Navarre. In 2017 he moved with him to Madrid. From that position he witnessed the trajectory of the man who, from 2021 onwards, would serve as PSOE organisation secretary and trusted associate of Pedro Sánchez. The closeness between the two reached the point where García recorded Cerdán talking about the distribution of illegal commissions in exchange for rigging public works contracts alongside Ábalos.
Three networks with the same pattern
Judicial findings from the past month suggest that Cerdán would have built his own network of influence, taking advantage of the power he held within the party, with the aim of enriching himself. The tentacles of that structure have been progressively coming to light.
The first case began with the detention of Koldo García and the implication of Ábalos in 2024 for receiving bribes from businessman Víctor de Aldama. In the framework of that investigation, the investigating judges positioned Cerdán as the mastermind of the group. A Supreme Court judge sent him to prison in 2025 for 142 days.
The second network was exposed in connection with the alleged rigging of contracts at the Spanish Industrial Holdings Company (SEPI). The case concluded with the detention of the former head of the entity, Vicente Fernández, and former PSOE member Leire Díez. Judge Santiago Pedraz, in charge of the matter, now identifies Cerdán as the head of that network. A WhatsApp group chat called Hirurok—"Us three" in Basque—shared by Díez, Fernández and businessman Antxon Alonso documented part of the group's activities. The case involves various companies including Forestalia or Tubos Reunidos, rescued in 2021 with 112 million euros of public funds.
Both networks share a modus operandi: Cerdán would have placed trusted individuals in positions within public bodies to operate from within. In the first case, he positioned Koldo García alongside Ábalos in the Transport Ministry. In the second, Fernández entered SEPI and Díez entered Enusa, an entity dependent on the same state company. When Fernández left SEPI in 2019 due to a previous charge, the group attempted to introduce Díez as chief of staff to the new president, Belén Gualda. Gualda rejected the proposal; Díez ended up being placed at Correos.
Servinabar and payments to family members
In both networks, Antxon Alonso appears, another trusted associate of Cerdán. Alonso created the company Servinabar, and the Civil Guard's UCO located a document according to which Cerdán would be owner of half the company. Servinabar would have served to pay salaries to the socialist leader's family members, to receive contracts from the Transport Ministry and to collect invoices that investigators consider false. Furthermore, when Fernández had to resign from SEPI, Alonso hired him at that same company.
The third case: pressure on judges and prosecutors
Analysis of the seized devices—the mobile phones of Díez and Fernández—led investigators to a third network. In this case it is not a matter of economic enrichment but of protection: for those implicated, for the PSOE and for the Government's inner circle. National Court investigating judge Santiago Pedraz considers Cerdán leader of an organisation that would have attempted to "destroy" and "destabilise" judicial proceedings affecting the party and the environment of the Government's president.
In this third case, Cerdán would have held the "senior role" in an action unit directed against judges, prosecutors and Civil Guard officers, delegating operational coordination to Leire Díez. Judge Pedraz has evidence of 22 meetings between the two at PSOE headquarters, with the first on 26 April 2024, during the period of reflection that Sánchez took. The evidence gathered suggests that the then number two of the party would have placed the logistics of Ferraz at the disposal of the structure. Payments to Díez, who has always maintained that she works as an investigative journalist, would have come from party coffers by order of Cerdán.
Investigators have seized new mobile phones which, according to La Vanguardia, will give rise to new chapters of the case.
Source: La Vanguardia