A Guardia Civil report describes impressive irregularities in Red.es’s award of a public contract, with investigators saying decision-making favored a consortium involving businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés. The findings are set out in a report submitted to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in February and placed before Investigating Judge Juan Carlos Peinado of Madrid’s Court of Investigation No. 41. They concern a procurement strand linked to the wider “caso Begoña Gómez” investigation. The alleged irregularities remain under examination; they are not a judicial finding that the contract was unlawfully awarded.
The report identifies a joint venture between The Valley and a company linked to Barrabés as the principal beneficiary of the process. Information from the Guardia Civil’s account of internal bidding-period emails, a Red.es digital-economy technician wrote in January 2021 that Barrabés’s offer was the preferred option and that competing bids were expected to be downgraded. A second message, sent by a senior technician in February 2021, questioned the preference criteria, suggested that other candidates might be stronger and sought guidance on how to proceed.
Investigators say bidders were not assessed against consistent standards. The report describes more lenient treatment of negative aspects of the Barrabés consortium’s proposal and stricter evaluation of competing bids. The Guardia Civil’s conclusion, as presented in the report, is that subjective considerations influenced the evaluation instead of uniform, pre-established criteria. Such allegations concern the integrity of the evaluation process; they do not by themselves establish that the contract award was invalid.
The report also describes a change in internal assessments during the tender. Barrabés and Everis were initially regarded as leading candidates, before the balance shifted, reportedly following the involvement of Luis Prieto, Red.es’s director of Digital Economy. The report links Prieto to drafting the tender documents and approving evaluation reports. Investigators say this sequence strengthened the Barrabés consortium’s position.
Barrabés is named as a suspect in this procurement strand and is also among those investigated in the wider proceedings overseen by Peinado, alongside Begoña Gómez. Her former Moncloa adviser Cristina Álvarez is also under investigation. The broader case examines Gómez’s professional relationship with Barrabés and activities connected to her Extraordinary Chair in Competitive Social Change at the Complutense University of Madrid. A separate strand has concerned software associated with the university chair; it should not be conflated with the Red.es tender.
The wider proceedings took a further procedural step on 21 September 2026, when Peinado ordered oral proceedings against Gómez over alleged influence peddling and misappropriation of public funds, to be heard by a popular jury at the Audiencia Provincial de Madrid. The jury is expected to comprise nine citizens and two substitutes. The Madrid provincial prosecutor’s office reportedly sought acquittal, arguing that the facts did not constitute a criminal offence. That position concerns the broader Gómez case, not a determination on the legality of the Red.es contract. No final verdict against Gómez or Barrabés has been reached.
Red.es is a public entity responsible for promoting digital development and administering technology-related programmes and contracts. Procurement involving public and European funds must meet requirements for equal treatment and objective evaluation, alongside transparency obligations. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office investigates criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the European Union; its involvement does not itself determine whether misconduct occurred. The outcome of the judicial review will depend on the evidence and the court’s assessment of the alleged differences in how bidders were evaluated.
