Police Uncover Offshore Company of Zapatero’s Associate in the British Virgin Islands. As part of the Plus Ultra investigation, police discovered an offshore company linked to a close ally of the former prime minister. The firm manages investments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Other foreign entities are also mentioned in the case.
Spanish police have discovered the offshore company Landside Holding Ltd in the British Virgin Islands, registered to entrepreneur Julio Martínez Martínez, whom investigators consider a trusted associate of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. According to investigators, this entity controls an investment portfolio worth over half a million dollars, with asset management handled by an American broker. Documents confirming this information were found on Martínez Martínez's laptop after his arrest in December last year.
The investigation is being led by National Court judge José Luis Calama. Landside Holding Ltd is already the second offshore company identified as part of the Plus Ultra case. Previously, investigators uncovered a similar structure in Dubai—Landside Dubai Fzco. According to the case files, this company may have been established on Zapatero’s initiative to obtain a 1% commission from the state aid granted to the airline Plus Ultra, which amounted to 53 million euros.
According to a UDEF report, Landside Holding Ltd not only managed investments but also signed an agreement to represent the interests of the Venezuelan Bank of Economic and Social Development (Bandes) in negotiations with the Abu Dhabi investment firm Noor Capital SPC. For its services, Martínez Martínez’s company was to receive 8.75% of the attracted funds. Investment management was carried out through Mora WM Securities LLC, and the seized documents record portfolio balances: over 560,000 dollars in 2019 and more than 600,000 dollars in 2023.
The investigation also traced how, in January 2021, after a meeting between Zapatero, Martínez Martínez, and another participant at a Madrid restaurant, preparations began to establish a Dubai-based company. The correspondence involved the former prime minister's secretary, María Gertrudi Alcázar, and Martínez Martínez's right-hand man, Cristóbal Cano. The plan was for the company to operate in Dubai's free trade zone, providing consulting services to Spanish-speaking companies looking to enter the UAE market, as well as to Emirati firms interested in expanding into Spain and Latin America. The business plan projected revenue of $3 million over five years and targeted major clients in Spain and Latin America.
However, as UDEF points out, the Dubai structure, formally owned by the Spanish company Ideella Consulenza Strategia SL (also linked to Martínez Martínez), could have been used to transfer abroad commission payments from the Plus Ultra bailout deal in order to conceal their origin in Spain. At the same time, according to the National Office for Fraud Investigation (ONIF), the airline Plus Ultra did not pay these commissions.
Analysis of the participants' correspondence revealed that two similar names were discussed for the Dubai company: Landside Dubai Fzco and Landside Middle East Fzco. Investigators have yet to determine whether these refer to two different entities or a name change for the same firm.
The context of the Plus Ultra case has once again attracted media attention. Earlier, the investigation materials included discussions about efforts to influence the audit of subsidies to the airline, and the details of the correspondence between those involved were thoroughly analyzed in the publication about attempts to slow down the Plus Ultra subsidy investigation.
For reference: The British Virgin Islands are considered one of the most well-known offshore centers, where companies can operate with minimal tax burden and a high degree of anonymity. In recent years, Spanish authorities have tightened control over operations with such jurisdictions, especially in investigations related to corruption and money laundering. The Plus Ultra case has become one of the most prominent examples where offshore schemes came under the scrutiny of law enforcement and the courts.
