It is the third time that Begoña Gómez appears before the investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado and, for the first time, the president’s wife has decided to testify before the magistrate. He has done so to defend that he “never” sought to profit from the software which it offered free of charge to other companies and has offloaded most of the responsibilities to the Complutense University of Madrid. Pedro Sánchez’s wife, according to sources present at the statement, He has only answered his lawyer’s questions. and has defended his innocence of the two new crimes for which he is being investigated, misappropriation and professional intrusion.
Gómez has explained that her collaboration with the Complutense dates back to 2012, she has clarified that she is not a professor although she directed an extraordinary chair in Competitive Social Transformation and has pointed out that He did not receive “any type of remuneration” for directing this chair. As of March 2020, it began teaching a master’s degree with the same name as the chair. As he has said, the collaboration with the university did not have to do with his relationship with Pedro Sánchez, but with “your experience”.
Sánchez’s wife has also tried to explain why she registered the TSC Competitive Social Transformation brand in the patent registry, and has stated that it is a “figurative mark” and that it is a “usual” practice in her own degrees like the one she taught at the university. Furthermore, Begoña Gómez registered the logo with the objective “that it would not be used outside the Complutense University of Madrid.”
According to legal sources, the person under investigation has assured that the Complutense was aware of the registry, and that the logo was stamped on all the documents that she exchanged with the university’s School of Government. “He never” wanted to appropriate the brandsGómez stated before the judge. And, although he created a company and a website from which he offered the Complutense software, Gómez has assured that he never intended to profit. From the first moment it was defined that the software was offered to companies “for free.”
Three companies began to develop that software free of charge for the university: Telefónica, Google and Indra. However, they left the project halfway after spending around 150,000 euros. So the UCM created a tender for another company to finish the job. Deloitte was awarded the project and developed it for 60,000 euros.
According to legal sources, Gómez has stated before the judge that he did not intervene in this project, and that he limited himself to following the guidelines of the School of Government. In this process, Sánchez’s wife signed a sheet of technical prescriptions, which is why she is being investigated for professional intrusion. This Wednesday, the person under investigation stated that she signed the document because The Complutense indicated this to him on several occasions through emails.
He has also pointed out that the platform was never fully operational since it was in a testing period, “80% of its creation.” The interrogation also focused on Gómez’s relationship with businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés. Sánchez’s wife signed two letters of recommendation for a Temporary Business Union (UTE) of Barrabés, and he presented the letters in two contests of the public entity Red.es. It was awarded both contracts and a third. In addition, Barrabés was among the professors of Gómez’s master’s degree.
Gómez has downplayed the importance of signing these two letters of recommendation, He has indicated that he “never” knew that the contracts had been put out to tender until the investigation against her began. According to what he said, he never did anything related to the bidding and no one told him about these processes. He has stated that the letters he signed “were standard letters” that the UTE sent “to the Complutense University.”
Güemes Declaration
After taking a statement from Begoña Gómez, the judge questioned Juan José Güemes, former counselor of the Esperanza Aguirre Government in the Community of Madrid, as being investigated, for his relationship with Gómez through the Business Institute, in which he holds a management position. Güemes, who was the one who hired Gómez at IE, She has denied that she made this decision because she was the wife of the President of the Government. In fact, contacts began at the end of 2017, when Sánchez had not yet arrived at La Moncloa. However, the hiring occurred on August 1, 2018.
According to sources present in the statement, Güemes has assured that he never spoke with Pedro Sánchez and that no one from the Government expressed to IE their interest in hiring the president’s wife. According to the version he has offered, the former counselor never met with Begoña Gómez in Moncloa, the meetings always took place at the Business Institute.
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