Okdiario's publisher paid 242,000 euros toward Koldo García's defence, lawyer says

Filing before the judge

Leticia de la Hoz, the lawyer for Koldo García, has handed invoices and bank transfer receipts to judge Santiago Pedraz of the Audiencia Nacional. The judge had asked for the material, and according to La Vanguardia she had previously refused to disclose the payment details, citing professional secrecy. García, a former adviser to ex-minister José Luis Ábalos, was sentenced to 19 years in prison in the mascarillas case, a term eldiario gives as 19 years and eight months. Pedraz is hearing the case known as caso Leire, in which De la Hoz is formally under investigation.

The documents show that Dos Mil Palabras S.L., publisher of the digital outlet Okdiario, paid the fees through IDBO Consultants, the firm that issued the invoices. De la Hoz took on García's defence in June 2025, according to RTVE. The total comes to 242,000 euros, VAT included. RTVE breaks it into two invoices of 181,500 euros and 60,500 euros.

Invoice dates and payments

The reports agree on the total and on the second invoice, dated 23 January 2026, but not on the first. RTVE and La Vanguardia date the first payment to 27 November 2025, while eldiario gives 11 November 2025 as the invoice date. La Vanguardia gives the amounts as 150,000 euros and 50,000 euros, while eldiario describes the first as 150,000 euros plus VAT. According to La Vanguardia, the first payment came on the day García entered pretrial detention, and the day after Okdiario published an interview with Ábalos and García in which Ábalos alleged corruption by Pedro Sánchez and Begoña Gómez.

The PSOE question

In her filing, De la Hoz says the papers establish that the PSOE did not pay her for the defence, a claim she says she has made repeatedly. She has offered to provide bank certificates if the court requires them. During her testimony before Pedraz, she rejected any link with the Socialist party and denied receiving any payment from it, according to RTVE. The filing was submitted to the Audiencia Nacional, and the statement below is hers.

“The documents prove that the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party made no payment whatsoever to my client for the defence of Koldo García Izaguirre.”

Caso Leire and the alleged offer to Carmen Pano

De la Hoz is formally under investigation in the case Pedraz is hearing, which concerns an alleged plot to destabilise judicial cases affecting the PSOE or the government. Businessywoman Carmen Pano has claimed she brought 90,000 euros in cash to the PSOE headquarters on Ferraz street. The alleged offer to Pano is reported in different terms: RTVE cites a 250,000-euro bribe that Pano suggested the PSOE was behind, while La Vanguardia says the case presents De la Hoz as having offered Pano 50,000 euros, indicatively, to change her statement. De la Hoz denies any attempt to bribe Pano, according to RTVE.

García's allegations at trial

At the end of the Supreme Court trial, on its final day, García used his last word to say he had been offered that the case would come to nothing if he spoke against the government. He said two media outlets had met with him and that he could prove what he was saying. The claim comes from García's own words in court, and no ruling on it is reported in the articles. Eldiario sets the remarks against the Okdiario interview published in November 2025, in which he criticised Sánchez and his government.