Wife of Spanish prime minister charged with embezzlement and misappropriation of funds

Begona Gomez accused of using her influence as wife of socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez to secure and manage post at Madrid University

Spain's prime minister Pedro Sanchez with his wife Begona Gomez during a campaign event in 2023. File picture: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Begona Gomez, the wife of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has been charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings, and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation by a judge in Madrid.

Gomez, 55, has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the socialist prime minister to secure and manage a post at Madrid’s Complutense University, and of using public resources and personal connections to further her private interests.

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has also charged Gomez’s personal assistant, Cristina Alvarez, and a businessman, Juan Carlos Barrabes, in connection with the case.

All the accused have denied wrongdoing.

The investigation into Gomez was triggered by a complaint from Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a history of using the courts to pursue those it deems a threat to Spain’s democratic interests.

Sanchez had repeatedly dismissed the case against his wife as a baseless and politically motivated smear. The prime minister has accused his political and media opponents of pursuing his family and has also openly questioned the impartiality of some members of the judiciary.

In his 39-page ruling, Peinado suggested that “certain public decisions favourable to the [university chair], which could have been obtained through a unique exploitation of her relational position, had been taken since Gomez’s husband became secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party and, above all, since he became prime minister”.

The judge also said there was evidence of behaviour at the Moncloa palace — the prime minister’s office and official residence — that “seems more in keeping with that of absolutist regimes and which has, fortunately, been forgotten in our state over the years”.

The prime minister, who said last year “there’s no doubt that there are judges doing politics and there are politicians trying to do justice”, said he was confident justice would be served and his wife would be cleared.

“What I ask of the justice system is that it delivers justice,” Sanchez said during a visit to China on Tuesday. 

“That justice be served. And since I’m convinced that time will put everything and everyone in their place, I have nothing more to say.” 

Peinado, who faces mandatory retirement as a judge in September, has given parties in the case five days to respond to his decision. The courts will then decide whether Gomez will face a jury trial.

The decision to formally charge Gomez comes at a fraught time for Sanchez as the prime minister’s younger brother, David, is due to be tried next month on charges of influence-peddling. 

According to another complaint from Manos Limpias, David Sanchez was handed a bespoke job by the socialist-led council of the south-western city of Badajoz in July 2017, when his brother was the national leader of the socialist party. He denies the charges.

Meanwhile, two senior former figures in Sanchez’s government are on trial for alleged corruption. 

The prime minister’s former right-hand man, the ex-transport minister Jose Luis Abalos, is accused — along with his former aide Koldo García and the businessman Víctor de Aldama — of taking kickbacks on public contracts for sanitary equipment during the covid pandemic. 

Abalos and García, who deny all charges, are facing sentences of 24 years and 19 years, respectively, while Aldama, who has already admitted to his part in the alleged scheme, faces a seven-year sentence.

Guardian