Judge Charges Begoña Gómez with Multiple Corruption Offenses in Spain Probe

The ruling from Madrid’s Court of Instruction No. 41 landed just as Spain’s prime minister and his wife were thousands of miles away on an official trip to China.

On Monday, Judge Juan Carlos Peinado formally charged Begoña Gómez, the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, with four corruption-related offenses, moving a long‑running investigation a step closer to trial and intensifying political pressure on Spain’s government.

In a written decision, known in Spain as an auto de procesamiento, Peinado concluded there are sufficient indications to pursue Gómez for embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds (malversación), influence peddling (tráfico de influencias), business corruption (corrupción en los negocios), and unauthorized appropriation of a brand (apropiación indebida de marca), Spanish media that had access to the resolution reported.

The judge dropped a fifth offense he had been examining — unlawful professional practice (intrusismo profesional) — saying there was not enough evidence to sustain it at this stage.

The ruling does not amount to a conviction. In Spain’s two‑stage criminal process, an auto de procesamiento means the investigating judge believes there is enough evidence to move toward a possible trial. Peinado has given the parties five days to state what they consider appropriate regarding the opening of oral proceedings. After that, he must decide whether to send the case to trial, dismiss any of the counts, or take other procedural steps.

The same decision also formally charges two other figures: María Cristina Álvarez, an adviser to Gómez at the prime minister’s Moncloa palace office, and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, who has had professional links to projects under scrutiny.

At the heart of the case are allegations that Gómez used her position as the prime minister’s spouse to obtain favorable treatment for academic and business initiatives with which she was involved, including a university chair and related programs, and that public resources linked to the prime minister’s office were misused in the process.

Summarizing the resolution, Spanish media reported that Peinado sees indications that, from the time Sánchez rose within the Socialist Party and especially after he became prime minister, “certain public decisions favourable to the chair and the TSC project” may have been secured by leveraging Gómez’s relationships and proximity to power. The judge cites meetings held at the Moncloa complex and alleged coordination with Barrabés as factual elements supporting his view.

Peinado’s own language, as reproduced from the ruling, is unusually stark for a judicial document. He writes that, however much one searches case law interpreting the relevant criminal offense, “no podrá hallarse un supuesto de similares características, pues las conductas que provienen de palacios presidenciales, como este supuesto, parecen más propias de regímenes absolutistas, por suerte, ya olvidados en el tiempo en nuestro Estado,” adding that analyzing this type of conduct may require an almost “teológica y hermenéutica” interpretation and that “quizá hubiera que remontarse al reinado de Fernando VII.”

The rhetoric is likely to add to an already heated debate over the case. The investigation has been politically charged from the outset, and the judge has clashed at times with prosecutors over how far and how long to push it.

Gómez’s defense team rejects the accusations and the way the case has been handled. Her lawyer, Antonio Camacho, described the proceedings as a “déjà vu” and a “pesadilla” — a nightmare — without proper legal guarantees. “Flaco favor se está haciendo a la imagen de la Justicia,” he said, arguing that the court’s actions damage the reputation of Spain’s judiciary.

Camacho is expected to challenge the auto de procesamiento before the Audiencia Provincial, the Madrid provincial court that reviews decisions taken during the investigative phase. Prosecutors, too, can weigh in on whether they believe the case should advance to trial and on what charges.

The legal saga began in April 2024, when Peinado opened a preliminary inquiry after receiving a complaint from Manos Limpias, a group known for bringing politically sensitive cases before the courts. The complaint alleged that Gómez had used her influence to attract sponsors and advantages for a university chair and postgraduate programs and raised questions about whether staff and resources attached to the prime minister’s office were inappropriately involved.

Since then, the case has widened. Other organizations from Spain’s conservative and far‑right ecosystem, including Hazte Oír and the Vox party, filed additional complaints. Peinado ordered various investigative steps and repeatedly extended the instruction period, most recently prolonging it through April 2026, a move that drew opposition from the public prosecutor’s office before.

The evidence collected has not all pointed in the same direction. In February this year, the Guardia Civil’s elite anti‑corruption unit, the UCO, informed the court it had not uncovered new incriminating facts in one of the strands Peinado had been exploring, related to the state rescue of airline Air Europa, according to Spanish press reports. That report underscored how contested both the facts and their legal interpretation remain.

Politically, however, Monday’s decision is bound to reverberate. It is rare for the spouse of a sitting Spanish prime minister to be formally charged with multiple corruption-related crimes. Sánchez, who governs with a fragile parliamentary majority and relies on support from smaller parties, has already faced intense questioning from opposition groups over the investigation.

When the probe was first made public nearly two years ago, Sánchez briefly scaled back his public agenda and framed the complaint as part of a politically driven campaign against him. Right‑wing parties, particularly the conservative Popular Party and the far‑right Vox, have continued to use the case to attack his credibility and ethics.

The complainants in this case — Manos Limpias, Hazte Oír and Vox — are either aligned with or part of that political spectrum. Their role as so‑called “popular accusers,” a feature of Spanish criminal procedure that allows private parties to bring and pursue criminal cases, has become a focal point in broader arguments over judicialization of politics.

For now, the charges are directed at Gómez, not at Sánchez himself, and Spanish law presumes her innocence unless and until a court issues a final conviction. But as the case edges closer to an oral trial, it ensures that questions over the conduct of the prime minister’s inner circle — and of the judiciary handling the matter — will remain at the center of Spain’s political conversation.

Within the next five days, the public prosecutor, the private accusers, and the defense must formally state their positions on whether an oral trial should be opened and on what terms. Peinado’s subsequent decision on whether to send Gómez, Álvarez and Barrabés to trial — and any appeals that follow — will determine whether the case culminates in a high‑profile corruption trial or stalls in a prolonged procedural battle.