{"id":10461,"date":"2026-06-12T21:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10461"},"modified":"2026-06-12T21:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:06:00","slug":"trouble-for-comrade-zapatero-investigation-into-tax-evasion-and-smuggling-e1-3-million-worth-of-jewelry-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10461","title":{"rendered":"Trouble for “Comrade” Zapatero: Investigation into tax evasion and smuggling – \u20ac1.3 million worth of jewelry found"},"content":{"rendered":"

New legal<\/b> “front” opens for Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero<\/b>, as the Spanish<\/b> law enforcement authorities expand the <\/b> against him following findings in a recent investigation<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The former prime minister of Spain<\/b>, Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero, already charged with improper influence, is facing new charges, this time for alleged tax evasion and smuggling<\/b>, following the discovery of jewelry in his office during a search, Spanish authorities announced.<\/p>\n

Thapatero<\/b>, a respected historical figure of the Spanish left, is accused of failing to \u201cprovide proof of payment of customs duties, special taxes, or taxes related to the importation\u201d of jewelry<\/b>, with a total value of 1,323,915 euros<\/b>, according to a document published by the National Court, which is leading the investigation.<\/p>\n

These two charges are in addition to those of undue influence and money laundering in this multifaceted investigation, which initially focused on the role played by Zapatero<\/b> in the rescue of a small airline in 2021<\/b>.<\/p>\n

After charges were filed against him on May 19 regarding this part of the case, he was summoned on June 17 and 18 by Judge Jos\u00e9 Luis Calama<\/b> to be questioned as \u201calleged head of a stable and hierarchical structure<\/b>\u201d whose purpose was to obtain bribes, according to the National Court.<\/p>\n

The socialist former prime minister (2004\u20132011) denies these charges<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Among the notable aspects of this investigation, as reported to the French Press Agency, was the discovery, during a search conducted on May 19, inside a safe belonging to Zapatero of these luxury jewelry<\/b> and watches<\/b>, which his associates said were family heirlooms.<\/p>\n

His lawyer had publicly stated a sum much lower than the 1.3 million<\/b> estimated by investigators.<\/p>\n

Today, the Court, in Judge Kalamas\u2019s ruling, referred to \u201cluxury items of high value\u201d<\/b>, including numerous necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, and watches.<\/p>\n

The legal troubles of Thapatero <\/b>are having negative consequences for the government of the current prime minister<\/b>, the socialist Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/b>, with the opposition calling for his resignation and early elections.<\/p>\n

With the atmosphere surrounding S\u00e1nchez already tense, as members of the prime minister\u2019s family are also involved in legal cases, the Socialist leader nevertheless continued to express his support<\/b> for his left-wing predecessor.<\/p>\n

However, the pressure has intensified in recent days, despite the respite provided by Pope Leo\u2019s<\/b> trip to Spain.<\/p>\n

In late May, a Supreme Court judge ordered the surrender of various documents and electronic files from the party\u2019s headquarters as part of an investigation focused on S\u00e1nchez\u2019s former associate, Santos Cerd\u00e1n<\/b>, as well as other party officials, lawyers, a businessman, and a police officer.<\/p>\n

They are alleged to have attempted to influence administrative decisions and to undermine any legal proceedings<\/b> or police action that would be detrimental to the Socialist Party or the government.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez denies having known anything about attempts<\/b> to influence corruption investigations into his party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new legal “front” is opening up for Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero, as Spanish law enforcement authorities expand the charges against him …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}