New Arrests Deepen Spain’s Public-Procurement Corruption Probe
By EurActiv
By Inés Fernández-Pontes
(EurActiv) — A fresh wave of arrests and raids by Spain’s Civil Guard has shaken Madrid as the National Court opens an investigation into alleged irregularities in public procurement linked to SEPI, a state-owned industrial holding.
The Civil Guard’s elite Central Operative Unit (UCO) on Wednesday evening detained businessman Anxton Alonso, following the arrest of former socialist official Leire Díez and ex-SEPI president Vicente Fernández.
SEPI, Spain’s state industrial holding founded in 1995, manages public assets “in the public interest.” It controls 14 companies, ranging from shipbuilding firm Navantia to postal company Correos, and holds minority or indirect stakes in more than 100 others.
Local media reported that the three arrests are tied to suspected manipulation of SEPI contracts related to the broader kickback-for-contracts scheme engulfing Prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE), known as the Koldo case.
Following the arrests, UCO agents requested documentation from several state-owned companies, including SEPI, uranium enrichment company Enusa, business development fund Sepides, and the food distribution company Mercasa.
Prosecutors reportedly link Alonso to PSOE’s ex-organisational secretariat Santos Cerdán, through construction firm Servinabar, described as a front used to secure public tenders allegedly steered by indicted former transport minister José Luis Ábalos. The company is considered central to the branch of the probe examining rigged construction contracts.
Fernández, who headed SEPI between 2018 and 2019 before resigning amid a corruption inquiry into the Andalusian PSOE – a case in which he was acquitted last week – later worked as an external adviser for Servinabar between 2021 and 2023.
According to local media, he met Díez during this period, when she served as head of communications at Enusa, in which SEPI holds a 60% stake.
Díez is already under investigation in a separate Madrid-led case for alleged influence peddling and bribery related to a supposed smear campaign targeting senior UCO officers and prosecutors investigating Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s inner circle.
As the investigation remains under judicial secrecy, the specific charges and the links between the three latest detainees have not yet been disclosed.
The widening construction probe continues to ripple through the Socialist ranks and Spain’s public sector. Those drawn into its orbit include Sánchez ally Santos Cerdán, former minister Ábalos and his aide Koldo García, former ADIF president Isabel Pardo de Vera, ex-director general for State Highways Javier Herrero, and two senior executives from Acciona, Spain’s second-largest construction group.
