The reports of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard close to Santos Cerdán, former organizational secretary of the PSOE (2021-2025), whose release was ordered by magistrate Leopoldo Puente this Wednesday, deeming the risk of destruction of evidence “attenuated” after the latest report presented by the armed institute against him. Although the agents have not yet sent the judge the asset assessment requested of them on the former deputy, the investigators believe it has already been “proven” that the conspiracy diverted at least 181 thousand euros to the former socialist leader and his entourage, through suspicious hiring, the payment of the rent of two apartments in Madrid and the coverage of the purchase of furniture and expenses for restaurants and travel.
The summary of The Cerdan case puts on the table a corruption network born in Navarra (where the socialist began his political career), and which then extended its tentacles to the Ministry of Transport led by José Luis Ábalos (2018-2021), who had Koldo García as an advisor. Investigators allege that the suspects received kickbacks from companies (such as Acciona) in exchange for influential job awards. According to the investigations, Cerdán used the company Servinabar (of which he owned 45% of the shares) as a front company to receive and subsequently distribute that money.
The UCO, which claims that Cerdán and his family “gained” through Servinabar, describes a series of bank transactions to demonstrate outflows of tens of thousands of euros from that company to the former MP and his entourage, which “could constitute alleged compensation” and which indicate “his actual ability to control this company”. Agents suspect that the possible sums received could be higher than those now detected, since Servinabar has earned 8.9 million euros since its establishment in 2015; of which 6.7 million are “linked” to the relationship with Acciona (75% of the total).
At the moment, the breakdown of the amounts resulting from the latest Guardia Civil report amounts to 181,000 euros linked to Cerdán and his closest circle: 84,930 euros dedicated to the hiring of family members; Euro 62,840 for the rental of two apartments and furniture; and 33,574 euros spent by credit card.
Travel and seafood restaurants. PSOE sources insist they never suspected Cerdán because of the austere life he led. But the agents managed to link a Servinabar credit card (a Business Visa) to him and his entourage. The agents, who highlight that it was no longer used on February 19 (one day before the arrest of Koldo García), analyzed the payments made through it and verified that the former deputy was precisely there where it was used.
For example, a trip to Tenerife. The UCO says that the socialist, his wife and daughter went to the island on 6 August 2023. The first trace was left at Barajas airport, in Madrid, where the card was used at 7:00 (34 euros spent in a restaurant) and at 7:17 (153 euros at Duty Free). According to the report, the family will stay on the same day at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, a four-star hotel located by the sea, with several swimming pools and direct access to La Enramada beach. The Visa card records three more disbursements there for a value of 38 euros. But they are not the only ones. During the week of stay in the Canary Islands, another 11 payments were recorded for a total of 1,259 euros, including 24 euros for “hammocks” in the municipality of Adeje; 44 euros at the petrol station; or various payments in restaurants (such as 344 euros at the La Vieja fish restaurant).
On other Ibiza holidays, UCO appreciates a similar dynamic. Investigators point out that Cerdán, his wife and daughter traveled to the Mediterranean island on August 3, 2022. The “records” indicate that they arrived by ferry from Denia, where “a payment of 61 euros” was spotted at the Bodega Puerto restaurant in the municipality of Alicante. From that day until August 13, the Servinabar Visa card is used 16 times in various businesses on the island for a value of 1,795 euros: in a supermarket the cost is 201 euros; another 64 euros at the petrol station; and the rest, in bars and restaurants (225 euros are paid at Mariner, near the port of Ibiza; 148 euros at Es Jardins de Fruitera, in the interior of the island…). The dates coincide to such an extent that, according to the UCO, on the day they take the boat back to Denia, another 55 euros are paid to the Saona restaurant in said location, in the eastern part of the peninsula.
The coincidences continue. From February 2022 to January 2024, meals worth 7,470 euros were paid for with that card at the Sazadon restaurant, on calle de Gaztambide in Madrid, just “170 meters walk” from where Cerdán lived. In fact, according to the Guardia Civil, wherever he and his family traveled, the visa was used. Whether he was in a hotel in Malaga on June 11, 2022, two payments were recorded in the city on the same day (one of 48 euros at the La Bouganvilla establishment and another of 37 euros at the La Clásica vermouth shop). That on 15 June of the same year he went to Seville and stayed at the Central de Convenciones hotel, 204 euros which apparently were spent on the 17th at the El Tigre restaurant in the Seville capital, and another 15 euros at Pisco Tapas on the 18th.
According to the report, up to 26 euros were paid with Visa to the Olivo restaurant, located in Milagro (Navarre), the former deputy’s hometown. “Spending and spending. And restaurants, every other weekend. That’s enough for them. All the good, the best”, complained in a message the wife of Joseba Antxon Alonso, co-owner of Servinabar, referring to Cerdán and his wife Francisca Muñoz: “La Paqui. All the sellers of El Corte Inglés know her”, she says.
Floors and furniture. The investigators point out that Servinabar also paid the rent of two apartments for Santos Cerdán in Madrid: one in Cardenal Cisneros street, which cost 800 euros per month (the disbursements were located between November 2017 and July 2018, “the total amount paid for the rental contract reached 7,200 euros”); and a penthouse on Hilarión Eslava street, the price of which amounted to around 3,000 euros per month (around 45,000 euros were paid since mid-2018, shortly after the arrival of the PSOE in La Moncloa, in July 2025).
Furthermore, according to the transfers identified by the UCO, Servinabar paid various expenses arising from these rentals, such as 3,146 euros for the management of the rental of Hilarión Eslava’s house. In July 2018, when Cerdán and his wife moved into that house, expenses for “bedroom furniture” worth 2,210 euros were also identified at Cama & Confort; and another 5,520 euros for additional furniture at El Corte Inglés. As if that wasn’t enough, the company purchased a “coffee table” for 119 euros that the wife of the former socialist leader went to collect (again from El Corte Inglés, according to data collected by the armed institute).
Contracts for family members. The police report states that Santos Cerdán’s sister, brother-in-law and wife were hired. After analyzing Servinabar’s accounts, the agents point out that he employed Belén Cerdán, sister of the former secretary of the PSOE Organization and socialist councilor in Milagro), during several months of 2020, when five transfers worth 22,324 euros were made to her. But the agents suspect that this figure will increase: they believe they have placed her as an “administrative” person in another cooperative linked to the conspiracy, Erkolan, from 2020 until mid-2025, as they found a payroll reflecting a net salary of 1,800 euros per month – but the UCO has not yet managed to calculate the total amount that Belén Cerdán received from Erkolan because, at the time of writing this report, she had not yet had access “to the cooperative’s banking information”—.
The Guardia Civil underlines that Servinabar also hired Antonio Muñoz Cano, brother-in-law of the former secretary of the Organization: “According to Servinabar’s accounts, he received 69 transfers for a total value of 53,130.30 euros from 1 October 2019 to 16 December 2022”. And another cooperative, Noran, formed by Joseba Antxon Alonso and Koldo García, made five transfers worth 9,500 euros to Francisca Muñoz, Cerdán’s wife. However, the UCO underlines that it could be a simulated hiring, because the alleged employment contract stipulated with Muñoz and even a pay slip were found, but the agents underline that they have not found anything that proves that he actually worked there, such as “an exchange of emails, documents or, in general, any hint of activity that indicates a real provision of services by” the socialist’s wife to Noran.
