The judge to Zapatero's figurehead: 'Did they receive money from Plus Ultra for peddling influence with officials from Sepi or higher up?'

- Judge José Luis Calama: Do you receive a lot of money from Plus Ultra for peddling influence with the authorities and officials of the Sepi or higher up? What exactly do you do to receive that enormous amount of money?

- Julio Martínez Martínez: Your Honor, I inform President Zapatero that these have presented themselves [to receive the aid]. I don't know what President Zapatero does. There have been some meetings that I don't know about, really, I don't know about all of them, and they tell me what they are doing, but what was done with the SEPI or with whoever, really, I don't know.

EL MUNDO has accessed the full statement of Julio Martínez Julito, the paymaster of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the framework of the Plus Ultra case. In his extensive appearance before the magistrate investigating the case, the businessman denied knowing what were the steps that allegedly led to the plot to collect a bribe for closing the rescue of the airline through a public credit of 53 million euros.

According to Zapatero's front man, the directors of Plus Ultra - and especially its president, Julio Martínez Sola - spoke with Relevant Analysis "with some regularity", informing them "of the movements that are being made." "From the first moment La Caixa and [Banco] Santander say no, and they continue looking for their financing line. And they find this fund," the accused continues.

"And then you intervene to make arrangements regarding this issue," says Calama. "It's not like that," answers Zapatero's figurehead. And asked about the dates on which the interactions began due to the issue of the background, Julito claims not to remember it.

- If the company met the requirements of the ministerial order that was issued, in principle they did not need you. Unless what you did were negotiations with the SEPI or with other types of officials or authorities. Exactly on this topic, what do you do?

- I'm going to tell you the same thing and you're not going to like it, your honor. This is a company that is crazy for financing. They have a great team, all administrative tasks or any type of work was done by them. What is done is to inform us and I, obviously, in my regularity I inform President Zapatero, but there is no periodicity of what they are doing.

During the interrogation, the head of position number 4 of the Investigation Section of the National Court asks the businessman about the 1% billing they charged, as reflected in a document presented by Roberto Roselli, former CEO of the airline and also accused in the case.

Calama points out that the concepts that appear in the invoices of the instrumental companies among which the payment of the bribe was diversified - Análisis Relevante (AR), Voli Analítico SL and IOT Domotic Europe SL - are "uncertain." He makes an inferential judgment about them, pointing out that it appears from them that, in effect, they charged a commission.