With Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appearing in the Senate to answer questions about a corruption scandal, The Local looks at what the ‘Caso Koldo’ is, the main players, and what it means for the government.
Spain is no stranger to corruption scandals. The so-called ‘Caso Koldo’ has resurfaced periodically in the headlines in the post-pandemic period, putting the Socialist (PSOE) government under growing pressure and adding to the litany of legal inquiries and corruption investigations surrounding Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s inner-circle.
Sánchez has in recent years seen his wife, brother, attorney general and two former right hand men, including a former Transport Minister, José Luis Ábalos, investigated for crimes ranging from influence peddling to corruption and classic kick-back schemes.
One of Sánchez’s most trusted political confidants, Santos Cerdán, the former PSOE organisational secretary, is currently being held in prison for his role in the wider Caso Koldo.
Sánchez and his supporters have decried lawfare by political opponents for many of the allegations, particularly those against his wife and brother, where the legal evidence does seem less substantial, but the Caso Koldo goes much further — there’s real evidence of corruption at the heart of the Spanish government.
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On Thursday, Sánchez appeared before the Spanish Senate for a fiery session of questioning about the case and wider corruption allegations against his government and family.
The Spanish opposition has repeatedly called for Sánchez’s resignation, something Sánchez refuses to do.
What is Spain’s Caso Kolo?
The scandal broke onto the front pages in early-2024 following the arrest of Koldo García, a one-time advisor to Spain’s then Transport Minister, José Luis Ábalos, for alleged corruption and ‘kickbacks’ in the awarding of contracts for face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the time, Spain’s Civil Guard police arrested around twenty people and carried out 26 property searches throughout Spain, with crimes of criminal organisation, money laundering, bribery and influence peddling all suspected.
The investigation was being led by Spain’s national High Court, looking specifically at whether illegal commission payments were handed out when awarding contracts for healthcare material, mostly face masks, from the Ministries of Public Works and Interior, as well as the healthcare systems in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
The investigation is also looking into a “personal and direct relationship” between García and two of the people alleged to have participated in Ministry contracts, specifically masks purchases by Puertos del Estado worth €20 million and by Adif worth €12.5 million.
Anti-corruption prosecutors allege that García used the Transport Ministry to speed up the contracting process and financially benefit Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas, the shadowy company at the centre of the alleged plot.
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Who is Koldo García?
So, who’s the namesake here? A former local councillor in Huarte (Pamplona), Koldo García became Ábalos’ chauffeur in 2018 when he was PSOE General Secretary. Once Ábalos became a Deputy in the Spanish Congress, he appointed García as a director at Renfe Mercancías. He was also a member of the Governing Council of Puertos del Estado, one of the public bodies originally caught up in the corruption scheme.
García is essentially suspected of having acted as an intermediary and collecting bribes or commissions for arranging the contracts.
He did so, according to prosecutor’s documents, by abusing his public position, and is suspected of receiving up to €1.5 million in bribes and commissions.
Suspicions were first raised following his “notable increase in wealth” and the purchase of three flats in Benidorm. Koldo García’s brother and wife were also arrested as part of the investigations.
Which companies and contracts are under investigation?
Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas (SGAE) was the main focus of original inquiries, a company which went from an annual turnover of €0 in 2019 to almost €54 million in 2020.
The contracts under scrutiny are principally those mask contracts for supplies to the Ministries of Public Works and Interior, and healthcare systems in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
Investigators believe the company could have even been selected for contracts before the public tender documents were made public.
A man named Víctor de Aldama was the head of SGAE and has played a murky role in the wider scandal, including the distribution of bribes and allegations about the bailout of Air Europe that have ensnared Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gomez. He is currently in prison for other fraud charges.
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Why did this become such a big political story?
In a word: Ábalos. The former Minister’s involvement took the scandal from a UK-style PPE equipment embarrassment to a political crisis.
This is to the extent that some in Spain now refer to the case as Caso Ábalos. A backroom political adviser like Koldo García wouldn’t have attracted such media scrutiny, but Ábalos was a prominent MP, a key figure both in government in his role as Minister of Transport, and, incredibly, he was also the PSOE’s organisational secretary until 2021.
Ábalos was first investigated in October 2024 and his role has essentially been to presentationally link all the various corruption allegations and cases together, creating an image of corruption at the highest levels of Spanish government.
In short, the Ábalos scandal heaped political pressure on Sánchez.
He initially stated publicly that he “had no idea” of García’s alleged involvement in the scheme, and described himself as “stunned” and “very disappointed”.
Ábalos eventually resigned and moved to the ‘mixed group’ in the Spanish Congress as a means of distancing himself from the PSOE, but then, a Guardia Civil corruption unit reported that Ábalos himself could have played a large and direct role in the corruption scheme and benefited from kick-backs more broadly.
De Aldama, it was alleged, had allowed Ábalos to use a beach-front property and later on in October 2024 Spain’s Supreme Court indicted the former Minister.
Cerdán, another major PSOE player, was first investigated for his role in early 2025. The organisational secretary did admit to a relationship with García, but denied any knowledge of the alleged Covid-19 corruption scheme.
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But then leaked voice recordings of Ábalos, Cerdán and García discussing bribes and prostitutes added a further layer of sleaze to the corruption and forced Cerdán’s immediate resignation. Further investigations in Cerdán’s hometown region of Navarre revealed further possible kick-back schemes dating back before the pandemic.
In late June Cerdán testified before the Spanish Supreme Court and on June 30th was held in prison.
Finally, in October 2025, the Guardia Civil published a further report on the alleged bribes and kick-back schemes, adding the detail that some were distributed in cash in envelopes from the PSOE headquarters in Madrid.
Investigations continue. Cerdán remains in prison and Sánchez has tried desperately to distance himself from both Cerdán and Ábalos, stating he had been betrayed.
