The businessman Joseba Antxón Alonso Egurrola, owner of the company Servinabar 2000, has been arrested as part of the operation deployed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard to dismantle an alleged corruption scheme with political and business ramifications. Servinabar is a central piece in the case that the Supreme Court follows against the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE Santos Cerdán and former Minister José Luis Ábalos, investigated for allegedly benefiting from public awards with the construction company Acciona during Ábalos’s time at the head of the Ministry of Transport.
Sources close to the investigation have confirmed to EL PAÍS that Alonso is among those arrested, together with the former Socialist militant Leire Díez and the former Chairman of the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales(SEPI) Vicente Fernández Guerrero. The operation has mobilized simultaneous searches in companies and homes in Madrid, Seville and Zaragoza, including the headquarters of the company Forestalia, linked to Servinabar.
A network that would have started in 2018
According to what the investigations indicate, the alleged scheme began to operate shortly after the arrival of the PSOE to the Government in 2018. That same year, Vicente Fernández took over the presidency of SEPI and the former socialist councilwoman Leire Díez took a position in the state-owned enterprise ENUSA Industrias Avanzadas SA, which depends on that state-owned enterprise.
The investigation, now in the hands of the judge of the Audiencia Nacional Antonio Piña and under secret, attributes to those involved the possible commission of crimes of fraud, false documentation, embezzlement, influence peddling and prevarication. Anticorruption considers that the scheme would have operated by channeling public contracts, influences within state agencies and economic contributions to companies in which politicians participated.
The role of Cistec Technology and the rise of Fernandez’s assets
A substantial part of the investigation focuses on the Basque-Navarre company Cistec Technology, of which Leire Díez was a director between 2021 and 2023, just after leaving ENUSA. The company became 25% owned in 2018 by Sepides, which depends on SEPI and was then chaired by Ms. Fernández. From that entry of public capital, according to sources of the case, the company obtained numerous subsidies and official contracts. Cistec maintains that there was no irregularity whatsoever and that Díez “did not receive any remuneration” during her time as a director.
The UCO also analyzes the assets of Vicente Fernández, whose assets would have multiplied after his time at SEPI. Among his properties there are, according to the investigation, an apartment of more than 300 meters in Puerta de Hierro (Madrid), two villas in an exclusive residential area in
A bar in Seville under suspicion
The plot also points to Seville, specifically to the establishment Bar La Bola, located on the island of La Cartuja. The establishment has belonged since 2023 to a company allegedly controlled by Fernández. According to sources close to the case, after his arrival the bar went from declaring losses to “billing significant amounts of money”, which has aroused suspicions of possible money laundering.The audios of the prosecutor Ignacio Stampa uncover a secret meeting with a former PSOE member who claimed to act on behalf of the party.
Direct links between Fernandez and Antxon Alonso
The investigators point out that Mr. Fernández worked between 2021 and 2023 as an external advisor to Servinabar, Antxon Alonso‘s company. In the summary there is documentation which proves payments of
An ongoing operation and new proceedings
The investigation is still active and it is expected that throughout Thursday the UCO will carry out new proceedings. Meanwhile, the organization Hazte Oír has requested to appear as a private prosecutor in the case.
The authorities consider Antxon Alonso a key player in the business gear that facilitated the alleged corruption scheme, whose political and economic scope continues to be analyzed in one of the most sensitive investigations in recent years.
