The two-day order

Investigating judge Santiago Pedraz, who holds Investigating Court number 5 at Spain's Audiencia Nacional, has given the Socialist party (PSOE) 48 hours to comply with a request it has not answered. The first request was made in early October, and in an order dated Tuesday, 20 October, Pedraz says the party's legal department has not replied to it at all. He asks for the complete list of law firms and professional consultancies the party hired between 2021 and 2025 at any central or regional body. He also wants a copy of the file showing what services were to be delivered, such as engagement notes or contracts, and the documents used to justify the services already provided.

“Given the time elapsed, the PSOE legal department is required again to comply with the judicial request within two days.”

What the investigation alleges

The case concerns an alleged plan to destabilise court cases that affect the PSOE and the government. According to the investigation, the plan was led by former Socialist official Santos Cerdán and coordinated by former party member Leire Díez. A Guardia Civil report from the Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) says that Ana María Fuentes, the party's current manager and also under investigation, would have been the person who falsified two engagement notes, working through Díez under Cerdán's instructions. When Fuentes testified as an investigated person, she placed responsibility for the party's payments to Díez and to two lawyers, Jacobo Teijelo and Ismael Oliver, on Cerdán. Both lawyers are also being investigated in the case.

Payments and suspected concealment

The UCO found that the payments went through Zaño Sociedad Consultora S.L, where Gaspar Zarrías was sole administrator, along with two other companies linked to Oliver. The report says the consultancy would have simulated Díez's hiring and paid her 4,000 euros a month. Those payments would have come from the party under a contract between its Ferraz headquarters and the firm, ordered by Cerdán. The judge and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor suspect the PSOE may have concealed payments for assignments to Díez through legal advice invoices. The judge is also examining whether the party used the companies of Oliver and Zarrías to channel payments.

In the order, Pedraz limits the request to information that does not infringe professional secrecy or the right not to self-incriminate.

“Insofar as it does not prejudice professional secrecy and the right not to provide information that it considers could incriminate it.”

Pending steps

The order gives the party two days from 20 October to comply, and the articles do not yet report whether it has done so. The documents would let investigators see how the party justified its advisory and consultancy services. They would also allow Teijelo's and Zarrías's cases to be compared with those of the party's other hired firms. The outcome of the deadline was not known at the time of these reports.