Businessman Carlos Barrabés maintains his version before Judge Peinado and rules out irregularities | Spain

This Thursday, businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés maintained his original version before Judge Juan Carlos Peinado and denied any irregularity in his professional relationship with Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. According to legal sources, Barrabés has declared himself a suspect and as he did when he was questioned as a witness On July 15, he explained that he had met Sánchez only once, in La Moncloa. He did so, he said, within a series of interviews between the president and specialists in the field of “innovation” and in a meeting that also included the Secretary General of the Economy and the G20, without the presence of the Socialist leader's wife. The businessman framed this meeting as part of his normal activities and insisted that he had met representatives of different parties and public administrations throughout his career.

This statement by Barrabés puts an end to that the hectic week lived for the cause promoted by Peinado, who is investigating Begoña Gómez for influence peddling and corruption in business. On Monday, the magistrate questioned a suspect – Joaquín Goyache, rector of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) – and two witnesses. On Tuesday, went to the Moncloa Palace to try to accept a statement from the President of the Government, although he abused his right not to testify (because he was the husband of the suspect) and then a complaint against the judge for pampering. The tension continued Wednesday, when the head of the executive branch appeared at a press conference justified the complaint against Peinado“The Public Prosecution Service has seen that rights have been violated,” he said.

According to legal sources present at this Thursday's deposition, which lasted barely half an hour, Juan Carlos Barrabés only responded to his lawyer's questions and presented a story similar to the one offered on July 15: when the judge questioned him as a witness – that is, with the obligation to tell the truth and without being able to exercise their right not to answer. Only Four days after that first statement, he was chargedThe businessman, who is suffering from a serious illness, appeared via video conference and said it was common for political leaders and officials to call him because he has a good name in the “innovation” sector.

In this regard, Barrabés highlighted that the first major public tender with the Madrid City Council was obtained under the leadership of Mayor Manuel Carmena (Más Madrid), and that this award was later renewed by the local company already headed by José Luis Martínez. In addition, two other contracts signed with the City Council were renewed just a few months ago (in December 2023 and April 2024) by Engracia Hidalgo, current Councillor for the Economy of Madrid and Secretary of Autonomous Policies under the leadership of Alberto Núñez Feijoo.

In his statement of 15 July, Barrabés explained that he had gone to La Moncloa several times to visit Begoña Gómez, with whom he also met in his office, after she had asked him to help her with a master's degree she had at the University Complutense. The businessman added that on one of those occasions in La Moncloa he had met Sánchez briefly, but that the meeting was brief because he left to make a phone call. He added that he had met the president again, in the context of the interviews with innovation specialists, without the wife of the PSOE leader being present.

This Thursday, Barrabés stressed, among other things, that it was his team, and not he personally, who decided which public tenders they would bid on. The suspect stressed that his business group employs hundreds of workers, according to legal sources present at the interrogation.

Barrabés’ status in the case has caused huge controversy from the start. Although the magistrate focused from the beginning on his professional relationship with Begoña Gómez and asked to investigate the public awards to his companies, the judge called him to appear as a witness first – unlike Gómez, whom he accused. The Public Prosecutor’s Office expressed its dismay at this situation. In an appeal sent to the Provincial Court of Madrid, where the “procedural deviation” of the case was warnedThe Public Prosecutor's Office explained that Barrabés “is considered a witness” despite the fact that “the feeling is conveyed that he is the person being investigated, although it is not clear what”, since the investigations “revolve around” his figure.

Finally, on July 19, Judge Peinado signed his indictment. The Public Prosecutor criticized that the judge had changed his criteria “without any motivation” and with “generic references.” In fact, the instructor claimed that the decision to charge him was based on two reports from the Guardia Civil, which he already had when he questioned him as a witness – and that They concluded that no irregularities had been found in the awards to the Barrabés companies, but also in his own statement as a witness. An interrogation in which the judge never interrupted the businessman to warn him that he might say something that would incriminate him.