Guardia Civil report says Sánchez's former driver Corvillo met the prime minister in 2023

The UCO report

The Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) of the Guardia Civil has sent Audiencia Nacional judge Ismael Moreno a report, part of the 'caso Koldo' file, that examines the links between Cristian Corvillo and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE). Corvillo, who was an occasional driver for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during the party's 2017 primaries, was detained on 5 November 2026 in a secret strand of the investigation. Investigators say a WhatsApp exchange between Corvillo and businessman Víctor de Aldama, dated 19 April 2023, shows he had direct contact with Sánchez. The investigators say those messages allow them to confirm a meeting with Sánchez in Córdoba, held without third parties and lasting about 35 minutes. Corvillo is under investigation in a separate strand of the case.

“A conversation between Corvillo and Aldama has been located that is revealing of the degree of Corvillo's link with the PSOE.”

The April 2023 messages

In the messages, Corvillo tells Aldama that Óscar López, described by ABC as the then director of the Presidency's cabinet, had called him about a private meeting, and that the president would be coming to Córdoba the next day. The following day Corvillo wrote that he had been with the president and described the encounter as 'de lujo'. According to Corvillo's own account in the messages, the purpose of the talk was to discuss 'el jefe', the term used for José Luis Ábalos. El Mundo dates the meeting to 20 April 2023 and reports that Sánchez was in Córdoba that day to back PSOE mayoral candidate Antonio Hurtado at an event at 18:30, after visiting the new Army Logistics Base at 17:15.

Ábalos, Maroto and a nationalisation request

ABC reports that Ábalos, who was no longer a minister, handled a request from Aldama with Reyes Maroto, then minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism. The request sought to speed up the nationalisation of a North American doctor who wanted to set up a business in Spain. The UCO report says the matter was to be handled with the ministry's advisers and that a third person linked to the Basque Nationalist Party had already informed Maroto. The UCO dates the Ábalos-Maroto conversation to 10 January 2023, and a screenshot of Corvillo's chat with Ábalos was recovered from a device seized in the search of Ábalos's home. Ábalos is serving a prison sentence after a Supreme Court conviction.

Prosecutors' view of the payments

The anti-corruption prosecutors (Fiscalía Anticorrupción) say they see signs of a 'handover of funds' to Ábalos by Corvillo between November 2023 and April 2024, using a Portuguese company linked to a third person. In their report to judge Moreno, they connect those payments to debts owed by construction firms that won public contracts. La Vanguardia reports that the UCO believes Ábalos kept taking kickbacks after leaving the ministry until 2024, and that Corvillo ultimately passed 125,000 euros that Ábalos's partner used to buy a property in Madrid. The prosecutors describe a different purchase: on 19 April 2024, Andrea de la Torre bought two properties in Madrid, an industrial unit and a parking space, for a total of 125,000 euros, without a bank mortgage.

Sánchez's response

Sánchez spoke at a press conference in Madrid held during the Ibero-American Summit, which coincided with the detention operation. Asked about the operation and about Corvillo, he answered briefly:

“None of those people has anything to do with me.”

ABC reports that Corvillo's brother and Andrea de la Torre, Ábalos's partner, were also detained in the operation. The report that describes the Córdoba meeting forms part of the case file (sumario) before the Audiencia Nacional.