Julio Martínez confirms that Zapatero will intervene in the Plus Ultra rescue, but does not clarify who he influenced

MadridJulio Martínez Martínez has become one of the key figures in the investigation into José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. They both met in 2011, when the former president sold him a house in Almeria, they became friends and they took up running together. The UDEF believes he was his frontman. 24 hours after disrupting Zapatero's defense strategy by stating that he was the one who “called the shots” in the Plus Ultra bailout, the businessman spent four hours testifying before Judge José Luis Calama as an investigated person and has ratified the confession about the former president's involvement word for word. Despite this, he said he does not know who he influenced or who he spoke to for the airline to receive public aid. Sources present at the testimony tell ARA that he recounted that he merely relayed what clients told Zapatero, that he did not get involved in the dealings Zapatero undertook, and that Zapatero did not report to him if he went to see anyone.

He also did not specify how the 1% commission – amounting to 530,000 euros – that Zapatero earned as a “mediator in obtaining” the bailout was split, and therefore, he has not specified what part he kept and what part the former president pocketed. In fact, in another document presented on Monday, the president of Plus Ultra, Julio Martínez Sola, admitted that the company “never had reliable knowledge” of the “specific actions” that Zapatero carried out to “favor” the bailout. However, he admitted that seeking his intermediation was a “desperate measure” in exchange for which they paid “high” amounts of money. A month ago, the former president stated that he had “no involvement” in the public aid and that he did not exert “even the slightest” influence. Despite the latest developments, Moncloa reaffirms its confidence in the former president.

Julio Martínez Martínez has made it clear that at Análisis Relevante – his company, which is at the epicentre of the alleged scheme – there was nothing, but rather it was a mere vehicle for Zapatero's contracts. And he acted as a link between the former president and what the clients requested. He also spoke about the mechanics of the invoices: Zapatero had clients, Análisis Relevante invoiced them and then redirected the money to the former president. Likewise, he specified that in 2021, following the opening of an investigation in the Madrid courts regarding the Plus Ultra bailout, payments to Análisis Relevante were interrupted and later resumed through another company, Voli Analítica.

Seeing his explanations, the judge asked him if he was his go-between, that is, a kind of pimp, a person who arranges a romantic relationship. And he accepted this description. The Dubai company, which the judge suspects was intended to collect the commission in exchange for the bailout, also appeared. However, Julio Martínez clarified that they never got to establish it because it was very complex. Finally, he stated that the reports were real, but acknowledged that they did not have great added value and only served to attract clients. In fact, Julio Martínez Sola, president of Plus Ultra, points out that either “such a report did not exist” or its “materiality” was “irrelevant” for the airline and it had a “simply cover-up” purpose.

The statement, which comes after the businessman decided to follow Víctor de Aldama's steps and collaborate with justice to “contribute to the clarification” of the facts, has not resolved the big questions that existed at the beginning. At one point during the questioning, the judge even asked him not to be so generic. “He hasn't given more details, I haven't seen any headlines,” said one of the lawyers present in the room on the way out. “He hasn't met expectations, he's been less emphatic than expected,” added another lawyer.

A “relevant role at different levels”

Two months ago, in the ruling that justified the investigation into Zapatero, Judge Calama pointed out that Julio Martínez would have had a “relevant role at different levels” and placed him as a “usual interlocutor” for the network’s clients and as a “receiver and executor” of the “direct instructions” from the former president. He also argued that he was the owner of the companies that channeled the funds received from clients and that served to “conceal the real decision-making mechanisms”.

This, precisely, fits with what he now states, maintaining that, despite Zapatero “being outside the shareholding and formal bodies” of the company, he was the one who “led and decided all matters of strategy and client acquisition” for Análisis Relevante. The company paid 490,780 euros to Zapatero and 239,755 euros to What The Fav, his daughters' company, which is also under investigation and will be summoned to testify starting the second week of September.