Businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés appeared as a witness before the investigating judge of Begoña Gómez to deny any favourable treatment by him or the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to him or his companies in public attributions. According to the content of his witness statement, which elDiario.es was able to review, Barrabés explained to judge Juan Carlos Peinado that he had several meetings with Gómez, some of them at the Moncloa Palace, to launch a master’s degree, and that he agreed with Sánchez, but he denied having requested letters of recommendation specifically from the wife of the CEO. Also that they favoured him to be director of Banco Santander: “No, man, no, for the love of God, out of the question.”
Barrabés, who suffers from health problems, appeared by videoconference before Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. It was the lawyer for Vox, spokesperson for the popular accusations in this case, who raised various questions about the letters of support signed by Gómez and that Barrabés’ companies submitted to various public tenders. The businessman denied having explicitly requested that these letters be signed by Begoña Gómez and translate into support for the company.
“When you apply for a public competition, one of the steps in the process is always to submit letters,” he explained in his first statement. Some letters that, as he clarified, are not of “recommendation” but of “support, and they are in support of the project, it is not in support of the company, it is super important.” In this case, it is no exception: “We always ask for them, the team asks for them, we asked for about thirty and in this case we asked the captain, that one person or another sign, it is another matter, but they are letters of support for the project.”
Regarding who had contact with Begoña Gómez to obtain these letters, Barrabés insisted: “Actually, the team, I think they asked the master, another thing is that she signed it, I don’t know why, but we always ask the master for the letters. companies or institutions but we never ask a person. I don’t think it was done to her, it was done to the master and the letter comes from the master.” Vox’s lawyer also asked if his business relationship with Begoña Gómez could have brought him any advantage, such as being appointed director of Banco Santander in this year 2024. “No, man, no, for God’s sake, come on, no way.” joke,” Barrabés replied.
“One or two” meetings with Sánchez
In his testimony, the businessman also stated that he met “once or twice” with Pedro Sánchez at the Moncloa Palace. However, he included these meetings in the context of his career as an expert in the field of innovation and in a “tour” that the head of the Executive was making with different businessmen from this sector. “It was to get my opinion on what the innovation sector was, with small and medium-sized enterprises…”, he answered questions from Judge Peinado.
However, Barrabés did not specify when these meetings took place. He also said he met the President of the Government in Benasque, a town in the Aragonese Pyrenees, although he denied having any “professional” or “friendly” relationship with him.
In addition, the businessman stated that on “about four or five” occasions he met with Begoña Gómez at the Moncloa Palace. The purpose of these meetings was to discuss issues related to the master’s degree in Competitive Social Transformation that Sánchez’s wife co-directed at the Complutense University and in which he taught some subjects.
In this sense, he explained to the judge that it was always “by invitation.” In addition, he said that in one of those meetings he had with Gómez, the President of the Government and “Alberto Barreiro, a person from the world of design” were also present “for a while” and that the conversation had revolved around the theme of innovation.
