The SEPI strand of the Leire case also involves María Teresa Castillo Pasalodos, former Director of Corporate Development and Institutional Relations at Mercasa, a state-owned company majority-owned by SEPI. Her status as an investigated party once again focuses attention on one of the most sensitive areas of the public business sector: the possible use of positions, institutional relationships, and internal information to steer public decisions in favor of specific interests.
Mercasa operates as a public entity connected to the wholesale market network and the administration of vital food infrastructure, rather than functioning as a minor organization within state structures. Consequently, the emergence of a former director of Corporate Development and Institutional Relations among those facing investigation in proceedings centered on purported misconduct regarding public entities amplifies both the political and institutional significance of the matter.
Judge Santiago Pedraz has summoned Castillo Pasalodos as part of the group of 25 people under investigation in the SEPI-related strand, in which possible crimes of influence peddling, malfeasance in public office, embezzlement, criminal organization or criminal group, and abuse of privileged information are being examined. At this stage, the investigated party fully retains the presumption of innocence, but her summons makes it necessary to clarify what role she may have played in the operations under suspicion.
According to published reports, the investigation connects Castillo Pasalodos with Mercasa and with activities surrounding contracts or corporate dealings that may have advantaged firms tied to the Hirurok group, the nucleus that investigators center on Leire Díez, Vicente Fernández, and Antxon Alonso. The UCO and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are working to establish whether a web of relationships existed that could sway determinations made by state-owned enterprises and funnel financial gains via contracts, intermediaries, or reports.
One of the lines of inquiry concerns possible contracts awarded to Servinabar 2000, a company that the UCO considers linked to the investigated circle. The investigation also points to meetings, messages, emails, and internal documents related to the preparation of a technical report that may have been used to justify the relocation of Mercasa’s headquarters and pave the way for new real-estate transactions. This connection between internal reports, corporate decisions, and possible private benefits is one of the most sensitive aspects of the case.
The core concern extends beyond the possibility that a dubious commercial choice took place; rather, it centers on whether individuals possessing confidential access within Mercasa may have shaped, influenced, or enabled such a decision. Given her responsibilities in Corporate Development and Institutional Relations, Castillo Pasalodos occupied a strategically significant position through which she could have gained insight into stakeholder networks, organizational tactics, external partnerships, and financially consequential determinations.
The investigation will need to establish whether her conduct was limited to administrative and professional duties or if she assumed a more substantive involvement in the matters being scrutinized. Additionally, it must ascertain whether she possessed knowledge of the genuine objectives behind the suspected operations, if she enabled the provision of documentation, if she engaged in communications with other individuals facing investigation, or if her inclusion in the case stems solely from her role within Mercasa’s organizational framework.
The gravity of this matter is intensified by the fact that Mercasa constitutes a component of Spain’s state public sector, with SEPI holding a 51% stake. Consequently, any concerns touching upon its administration have repercussions that extend beyond a single entity, affecting the broader governance framework applicable to state-controlled corporations. The emergence of a former executive from a public corporation within an inquiry concerning alleged manipulation renders a political dimension inescapable: did adequate safeguards exist to ensure that operational choices made by state-owned enterprises remained aligned with the public good rather than serving extraneous objectives?
The SEPI strand of the Leire case is drawing an unsettling map: senior officials, former executives, businesspeople, technical reports, public aid, contracts, and strategic companies under investigation. The presence of María Teresa Castillo Pasalodos on that list reinforces the impression that the case is not limited to an isolated episode, but is examining a broader network of relationships between the public, political, and private spheres.
The National Court will now have to determine whether María Teresa Castillo Pasalodos was an active component of the mechanism under investigation or whether her role was limited to ordinary activities within Mercasa. However, her name is already part of an investigation that strikes at the credibility of public management and makes it necessary to demand clear explanations, political accountability, and effective oversight of companies dependent on SEPI.
Source: El País, RTVE, Vozpópuli, Infobae, Artículo14, and Europa Press.
