Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has issued an order in which he once again summons Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to testify as “investigated” for two new crimes: misappropriation and professional intrusion. The magistrate, who was already investigating Gómez for influence peddling and corruption in businessthus expands the case after admitting a complaint from the ultra organization Hazte Oír for the alleged appropriation by the president’s wife of a software [plataforma tecnológica] from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). The judge, in an order dated October 28 and to which EL PAÍS has had access, orders this fact to be communicated to Gómez and the appointment to testify on November 18 at 1:30 p.m. in the Plaza de Castilla courts, in Madrid.
“There are indications that the defendant may have committed the crime of misappropriation,” Peinado writes in the document, “and documents are provided that could justify the investigation for that type of crime, where it could be inferred, a priorithat the defendant, linked as Co-Director of the Chair of Competitive Social Transformation, to the UCM, would have registered in her favor the software”. “Evidently, this conduct could be included in the crime of misappropriation,” he adds. Misappropriation is punishable by prison sentences of between six months and eight years (or a fine, in cases where the amount appropriated does not exceed 400 euros), according to article 253 of the Penal Code.
Regarding the crime of professional intrusion, the judge maintains that Gómez may not be qualified to create the Complutense technological platform. This crime, typified in article 402 of the Penal Code, carries prison sentences of up to three years.
He software The object of the complaint—used in the chair co-directed by Begoña Gómez, which the university canceled a few weeks ago citing a lack of students—had been created thanks to the collaboration of three companies: Indra, Telefónica and Google; and consisted of a website where small and medium-sized companies could consult different parameters on competitiveness, social responsibility and sustainable development for free. That website stopped working a few weeks ago because Gómez did not pay the fee for its annual renewal and transferred that decision to the Complutense University so that they could do what was appropriate. But the university ignored it.
In the summary opened by Juan Carlos Peinado six months ago there is no evidence of a crime of misappropriation. This possibility was mentioned for the first time by the Complutense University after carrying out an investigation into whether Gómez had put that technological platform in his name: although it confirmed that no data pointed to this, brought his doubts to court because Gómez had created a company in his name at the end of 2023 with the same name as the chair he co-directed at the Complutense.
Hazte Oír filed, for that specific fact, a complaint in the Court of Instruction number 48, which recused itself in favor of the Peinado court, head of court number 41, which had already been investigating the president’s wife for six months for drug trafficking. influences and corruption in business. In all this time it has not found evidence of these crimes, and has in its possession reports from the Civil Guard that rule out any irregularity in the awarding of the contracts under investigation. Both Gómez and the President of the Government himself were summoned by the judge in the course of these investigations—she as the accused, he as a witness—but They both availed themselves of their right not to testify..
Asked about his wife, Pedro Sánchez referred to the accusation this Tuesday of two other crimes against Begoña Gómez, whom the judge summons again to testify on November 18. “All the complaints that were filed against my wife came from the same far-right organizations,” said the President of the Government, on an official trip to India, who has called the accusations fallacious. “I am increasingly convinced that time will put things in their place,” Sánchez concluded from Bombay. Inform José M. Abad Liñán.
Gómez’s beginnings in the Complutense
Begoña Gómez first started working at the Complutense University of Madrid in September 2014, three months after Sánchez was elected general secretary of the PSOE. The wife of the now president co-directed the Master of Fundraising since its creation – also in 2014 [captación de fondos]. Five years later, in 2019, the Complutense created the Chair of Competitive Social Transformation and, later, a master’s degree with the same name. Since last October 7, Gómez no longer has any connection with the university. All the master’s degrees in which I participated have been cancelled.
Although in Spain they are called chairs, they are subsidized research or academic work initiatives. The Madrid university currently has more than 50. To start them, 30,000 euros are usually required, which come from sponsors. Of these 30,000 euros, 10% goes to the university itself. The two sponsors of the chair that Gómez co-directed are the La Caixa Foundation and Reale Seguros, which signed an agreement with the Complutense in October 2020 for four years (it ended in October 2024) at a rate of 15,000 euros per year each.
In 2020, one year after creating the Chair of Competitive Social Transformation, the Master in Competitive Social Transformation was born, which until September 11 was also co-directed by Gómez. That day the university canceled it, claiming that there were not enough students. And on October 7, he also announced that he was not renewing the other one, the Master of Fundraising. According to university sources, it was not renewed because the master’s degrees have to be applied for if they want to continue the following year – they are renewed annually – at the end of the school year. In this case, according to these sources, it was not done in a timely manner. Regarding the chair, which has also been eliminated, the Complutense has not issued an official explanation. Other sources suggest that the reason would be in line with the cancellation of the chair.
