Begoña Gómez changes strategy. The wife of the President of the Government responded this Wednesday to the questions asked by her lawyer about the extremes that Judge Juan Carlos Peinado accuses her of. It happened during his third appearance before the magistrate. Gómez has denied all accusations, including the one that gave rise to the case, alleged influence peddling for interceding on behalf of businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés. “The form letters I signed did not support companies [de Barrabés]. They supported the importance of the project that was being tendered,” stated Gómez, according to legal sources told elDiario.es.
The person under investigation has defended that she did not participate in any bidding process and that she was not even aware of those award procedures. What’s more, she assures that she only learned about the awards to the companies of Barrabés – who participated in the course she co-directed at the Complutense University – when the judicial case that has kept her charged since April was opened.
Gómez explained that the two papers he signed are model letters, which he said are common in public procurement processes. She has said that these standard writings were sent to the Complutense master’s degree that she co-directed and that her signature was not even requested. To support his thesis that he was not recommending awarding contracts to companies but rather supporting the program that was being tendered, Gómez said, about the letters, at one point in the statement: “Just read them.”
Along the same lines, the president’s wife recalled that other institutions, such as the Madrid City Council, signed the same model letter and that, independently of that process, these administrations awarded contracts to Barrabés companies.
The chair was the rector’s idea
Regarding the accusation of having illegally appropriated software developed by Indra for his chair at the Complutense, Gómez has denied having made it illegally available to him. Its registration on a website, he has defended, was a necessary step for its implementation and was something known by the UCM. Gómez recalled that this is stated in the emails included for his defense of the cause.
Gómez took advantage of her appearance today to explain that she began collaborating with the Complutense six years before Sánchez became president, in 2012. She began with a technical diploma and two years later, in 2014, she became co-director of the first master’s degree. His remuneration was 15,000 euros per year. In October of that same year, 2020, she was appointed director of the Extraordinary Chair of Competitive Social Transformation, without receiving compensation for it.
At this point, Gómez explained how the chair was created. The president’s wife has attributed the idea to Joaquín Goyache, rector of the Complutense who has also been accused by Judge Peinado. Gómez has assured that in a meeting in July 2020 – held in Moncloa, as has emerged – he conveyed to the rector the invitation to a Congress to promote the second master’s degree. “He suggested that I incorporate the two master’s degrees under the name of ‘extraordinary professorship,’” Gómez said. The president’s wife added that she was unaware of such a possibility and that it finally materialized in October 2020.
The accused wanted to highlight that the chair was financed with private resources, never public, and that both it and the master’s degree were only aimed at disseminating the “Sustainable Development Goals.” Along these lines, he has highlighted that the training initiatives never had any profit motive, neither on his part nor on that of his colleagues or the companies that collaborated.
Regarding the accusation of labor intrusion, for signing the specifications of a contract linked to the chair and for which he would not have training, Gómez has defended that he did so following instructions from the Complutense itself. At the university they told her that it was her responsibility to sign because she was director of the chair, she added.
Gómez came this morning to testify as a defendant in her third summons in the case led by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. The magistrate, following a complaint from the ultra-Catholic association HazteOir, is investigating whether the wife of the President of the Government irregularly appropriated software that Indra created for her professorship. The UCM itself has acknowledged in writing before the judge that Gómez never took this tool to the Property Registry and she has always alleged that she limited herself to hosting the software on a website that she paid for out of pocket, also following instructions from the own university.
At the end of the statement, Gómez’s lawyer, Antonio Camacho, spoke to the media. Regarding his relationship with the Complutense and the signing of some documents, which according to HazteOir may constitute a crime of professional intrusion, the lawyer explained that he did so following the instructions of the university itself: “All processes at the UCM are guided and received at least two emails urging him to sign that sheet of technical prescriptions.” Nor did he illegally appropriate the software: “The UCM was fully aware of the registration of those brands and they have never been used outside the scope of the university.”
Güemes already thought about hiring her in 2017
Begoña Gómez’s statement lasted for about forty minutes, which began with a succinct review of her professional career. Gómez responded to his lawyer after announcing that he would only answer his questions. After his statement, it was the turn of Juan José Güemes, former Health Minister with the PP and who hired Gómez for the Africa Center. Güemes was summoned as a witness by Judge Peinado, who interrupted the statement to summon him today as an investigator.
In the document in which he summons him, the judge does not explain the reasons for Güemes’ accusation. This morning, the person under investigation denied again, as he already did in his witness statement, that he hired Begoña Gómez because she was the president’s wife, according to sources present in the statement.
Begoña Gómez explained that she had known Güemes for a long time and that in 2017, long before her husband became President of the Government, they already talked about collaborating professionally. Gómez has defended that she was never hired for the Business Institute – to which the Africa Center belongs – because she was Sánchez’s wife, as indicated by the fact that she was already talking about that possibility long before the PSOE came to govern.
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