On the one hand, the trial in the Duro Felguera case will be held next October. The Public Prosecutor's Office is seeking almost nine years in prison for Nervis Villalobos and a fine of 3.6 million for alleged bribes so that the Asturian company would be chosen to build a thermoelectric power plant in Venezuela.On the other hand, the Columbus case investigated whether Nervis Villalobos had laundered money from PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil company, through the purchase of a house in La Moraleja (Madrid). However, the judge dismissed the case in September 2022 because she could not rule out that the money he received came from "services actually rendered".
The ex-Chavista minister who unites the Leire Díez case, the Zapatero case and... the Pujol case
Nervis Villalobos was also imprisoned by the judge investigating Begoña Gómez, but the Constitutional Court concluded that his rights had been violated
13/06/2026
3 min
MadridIn recent weeks, political news in Madrid has been marked by judicial investigations. The outbreak of the Leire case and the Zapatero case have shaken the PSOE and have once again placed Pedro Sánchez in a moment of maximum weakness. And there is a repeated name that appears linked to the so-called plumber of the PSOE and the investigation into the former president of the Spanish government: Nervis Gerardo Villalobos, who was Vice Minister of Energy in Venezuela with Hugo Chávez from 2004 to 2006.
Leire Díez's efforts to obtain nationality for him
The Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard revealed that Nervis Villalobos became involved in Leire Díez's group because they shared a common enemy: prosecutor José Grinda, who was in charge of the cases –Duro Falguera and Columbus– in which he was being investigated. As a pressure tactic, Villalobos and Díez allegedly maneuvered to get close to the woman from Jaén who in 2009 –when she was a minor– allegedly received sexually explicit videos from the prosecutor. She maintained an open civil dispute, and they even invited her to the Ferraz headquarters. Furthermore, the group allegedly tried to bribe the prosecutor with 300,000 euros to dismiss certain cases, such as the Pujol case, the 3% case, or the Duro Felguera case, which will be tried in four months. One of those investigated in the Leire case is Ismael Oliver, who is Villalobos's lawyer and defended Koldo García –former advisor to José Luis Ábalos– from February to June 2025.
in April 2025, invoking the Law of Democratic Memory.
A “known citizen” by the UDEFobtained Spanish nationality in April 2025 by invoking the law of democratic memory.
A “known citizen” by UDEF
In parallel, one of the reports from the Unit of Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF) in the Zapatero case noted, "in case it might be relevant at a later stage", that France's response to the rogatory commission mentioned Nervis Villalobos: “He is being investigated in Spain in different judicialized cases for money laundering of huge amounts”, recalled the report, which presented him as one of the “Venezuelan citizens who are already known” by the Spanish investigative group. There is a Signal conversation between Luis Baca, a Peruvian businessman, and Simon Leendert Verhoeven, an investor of Dutch origin who provided loans to Plus Ultra before the bailout, in which he is mentioned.
Pressures to obtain information on the Pujols
In November 2024, Nervis Villalobos appeared before the Congressional investigative committee on Operation Catalonia. There he confessed that he suffered a “persecution” for having accounts at Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA). What happened? It was the autumn of 2015 when he met in Washington with Bonifacio Díaz Sevillano – who had been Interior Attaché in Andorra and at that time was attached to the operational deputy director of the Spanish police –, who asked him if he knew if Jordi Pujol had money at BPA or if he could obtain information about it. “I told him that I had no idea what he was asking me, but there was always this insistence,” he explained.
Throughout 2016, they held five more meetings. “He told me that the Police, for my cooperation, could help me with the residency procedures and the almost immediate obtaining of nationality,” he recalled in the lower house. “I was offered a paradise if I was capable of lying, but since I did not agree, it turned into an ordeal,” he added.
An unconstitutional imprisonment by the judge in the Begoña case
But there is more. a long-debated investigation. However, three years later, the Constitutional Court declared that the magistrate had violated his right to personal liberty: “The procedure followed has not respected the legal guarantees of information and access to the essential elements of the accusations nor the guarantees of contradiction and equality of arms”, concluded the sentence. In fact, in May 2024 Nervis Villalobos handed over to Leire Díez a "schedule of irregularities" from the judge, who was also in his sights.
How did their two cases end?
