The Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) of the Guardia Civil has placed several senior PSOE officials at the center of a suspected criminal organization that allegedly used party infrastructure to support illicit operations. A report obtained by Libertad Digital and submitted to Audiencia Nacional investigating judge Santiago Pedraz names former Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán, party federal manager Ana María Fuentes Pacheco, and Ferraz employees Covadonga San Pedro and Celia Rodríguez as basic participants. The claims form part of an ongoing investigation and do not amount to a final finding of criminal liability.
The UCO report describes how the party’s internal structure was allegedly made available to support the group’s activities. It says PSOE funds covered related costs, including travel and vehicle rentals. The document also claims party staff handled administrative tasks for the network and party premises hosted meetings linked to the investigation.
Investigators believe Santos Cerdán, as Organization Secretary, played a basic role by granting access to party resources from the outset. The report says this support enabled the group to operate and helped shield party or government interests during sensitive judicial proceedings. The wider inquiry concerns alleged efforts to obtain compromising information about judges, prosecutors and UCO officers, discredit investigators and witnesses, and disrupt politically sensitive proceedings. Cerdán’s defence has challenged the scope of the investigation, describing it as a “causa general” against him.
Ana María Fuentes Pacheco, the PSOE’s federal manager, is alleged to have overseen the falsification of two professional-engagement documents: one with Estudio Jurídico I. Oliver & Partners SL and another with lawyer Jacobo Teijelo Casanova. The UCO says the documents were created to simulate professional relationships and justify payments to the lawyers. Its report attributes the instructions to Santos Cerdán, with Leire Díez acting as an intermediary. Fuentes appeared before Pedraz as an investigated person and reportedly said Cerdán made the decision to hire the lawyers. She also said she did not know Díez.
On 20 October 2026, after Fuentes’s questioning, Pedraz gave the PSOE 48 hours to provide information about lawyers, law firms and consultants hired by party bodies, following an earlier request that had gone unanswered. The material sought covers contracts and professional engagements dating from 2021 onward, including the period when Cerdán was the party’s Secretary of Organization. The court wants to establish the purpose, beneficiaries and financing of those engagements, and determine whether they extend beyond the two documents highlighted by investigators.
The PSOE has invoked professional secrecy to seek a delay or limit disclosure of the records. Party representatives reportedly asked the Consejo General de la Abogacía Española for guidance on handling information about lawyers, firms and consultants. The dispute concerns what contractual and client-related information can be provided while preserving legal confidentiality. The party has also said it “has not been part of anything being investigated” and has “nothing to do with the cases under investigation.”
Covadonga San Pedro, who handled secretarial and administrative duties, is described as providing logistical support. Her reported tasks included organizing travel and booking flights, trains and vehicles at the party’s expense. She also arranged meetings to help the group’s operations. Celia Rodríguez Alonso is identified as having performed similar functions. The report describes both as helping manage costs and logistics for the activities under scrutiny.
The report calls for investigators to analyze communications stored on the individuals’ mobile devices, both to clarify the extent of their involvement and to identify others who may have issued instructions or taken part in the activities. The UCO says evidence suggests some basic arrangements were coordinated through mobile communications.
A separate strand of the Koldo investigation concerns Servinabar, a company linked to Cerdán, and a public-works joint venture with Acciona in La Rioja. Acciona reportedly acknowledged in court that it paid €1.9 million to Servinabar through the joint venture responsible for the project. The contract is under examination in proceedings concerning alleged manipulation of public-works awards during José Luis Ábalos’s tenure as Transport Minister. That sum relates to the separate public-contract strand; it is not an amount attributed to PSOE financing.
This development comes amid intensifying scrutiny of party-linked legal and financial practices. In recent months, other high-profile PSOE figures have distanced themselves from ongoing investigations. María Jesús Montero, for example, expressed regret over her trust in Vicente Fernández amid the expanding Leire case probe. For more on the broader implications within the party, see this recent report on internal reactions to the SEPI scandal.
Authorities are seeking to determine the actual costs assumed by the party, the methods used, and the awareness or involvement of those implicated. Pedraz’s request for records dating back to 2021 broadens the examination from the two engagements identified in the UCO report to the party’s wider contracting practices. The investigation remains ongoing, and no final judicial ruling has established the allegations against the named officials and employees.
