Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, who is investigating the case of Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, collects this Sunday the statement of Judit Alexandra González Pedraz, a high-ranking official of the Presidency of the Government recently accused of alleged embezzlement in relation to the work of Gómez’s advisor, Cristina Álvarez. The senior government official was accused of being an advisor to the president’s wife. In addition to presenting his statement, the trainer asked the general secretary for all the emails and cross-media with Gómez’s advisor.
In an order issued on Tuesday, the magistrate decided to convene her this Sunday after learning that a lawyer would not be able to appear on the initially proposed date (Wednesday). In addition to Judit González, Peinado called three witnesses who have already testified in the case: the former vice-rector of the Complutense University of Madrid, Juan Carlos Doadrio, the president of the Instituto Empresa, Diego de Alcázar, and the institutional head of Google, Miguel Escassi.
The head of the Investigative Court Number 41 of Madrid decided on November 4 to continue the case for five alleged crimes against Begoña Gómez and the other three people under investigation and accused the current Secretary General of the Presidency of the Government of alleged embezzlement of public funds. It is the same crime of which the current government delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín, is accused, and for which he called as a witness the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, who was in office when Cristina Álvarez was appointed advisor to Gómez in 2018.
Judge Peinado sees signs of misappropriation in the appointment and exercise of the functions of councilor Cristina Álvarez, considering that she was hired with public funds, although she carried out functions of a “strictly private” nature taking care of Pedro Sánchez’s wife.
