Former president of Plus Ultra declares that he paid a 1% commission to the Zapatero group to obtain a state rescue

The former president of Plus Ultra Julio Martínez Sola declared this Monday before the judge that he agreed to pay a 1% commission "to the Zapatero group" to obtain the granting of a state bailout of 53 million euros to the airline.

Sola has appeared as a defendant before the judge of the National Court José Luis Calama, who is investigating the actions of the former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for possible influence peddling. For more than two hours he answered the questions of the investigating magistrate and the Anti-Corruption prosecutor Elena Lorente, in addition to his defense.

The person under investigation has ratified the content of the letter sent to the court in July, in which he acknowledged those payments and the negotiations held with Julio Martínez Martínez, considered Zapatero's representative and front man.

Sola has indicated that she does not know what specific steps Zapatero could have taken for Plus Ultra to obtain the green light from the Government in March 2021. Not even if these steps were taken, although she believes they were because the state aid was received. Nor, he added, could he say whether the favorable result was only due to this intervention by the former president or to the fact that, as he maintains, the airline met the requirements to access the Fund to Support the Solvency of Strategic Companies.

In fact, a large part of the questions asked by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor and Judge Calama have been aimed at investigating this last point: whether the company controlled by Venezuelan capital met the requirements to access the rescue.

When asked by the magistrate, the former manager has justified the payment of the 1% commission, which in chats between those investigated they called a "bite." It was a "success" commission that was only going to be paid if the ransom was obtained.

He has indicated that this bribe was paid to ensure that the ransom was granted by the Government of Pedro Sánchez. When faced with "doubt" they paid. The former president of Plus Ultra has always maintained that both he and his then CEO, Roberto Roselli, thought at first that Zapatero's efforts would have no cost but, later, they realized that they would.

Zapatero's call

He has also confirmed the call he received on April 30, 2020 from a hidden number from former President Zapatero himself. During that conversation, which lasted approximately 10 minutes, the businessman explained to the former leader of the PSOE the difficult financial situation that the company was going through and the need to access an ICO loan. According to Martínez Sola, Zapatero responded that his intervention could be helpful and that he would take the appropriate steps.

This businessman's statement precedes that of the former CEO of Plus Ultra Roberto Roselli tomorrow, who also sent his own writing to the Court, coinciding with Sola's. Added to the statement of both is that of Julito Martínez himself, who acknowledged to the judge that the Plus Ultra payments were for the former president of the Government.

The investigation by the National Court has revealed, thanks to the traceability of the payments, that the illegal commission of 1% of the ransom was broken down into payments made to several companies controlled by Julio Martínez Martínez, with 249,000 euros being paid to Analisis Relevante, 98,617.53 euros to Voli Analítico SL and 110,799.47 to IOT Domotic Europe SL.