As more details emerge about the business dealings of Begoña Gómez, wife of Spanish premier Pedro Sánchez, most Spanish citizens want Sánchez to either step down or be forthcoming about his wife’s activities.
Gómez is under investigation for peddling her influence as the prime minister’s spouse and for possible additional crimes in her business dealings. The investigation stems from her work as an extraordinary chair at the Complutense University. In 2020, not long after Sánchez had begun his first full legislative term as prime minister, Gomez was appointed chair of the newly-created Master in Competitive Social Transformation program at the Complutense University of Madrid, despite not holding a university degree herself. The position seemed to have been created just for Gómez. Besides the master’s degree program the department runs, the essential purpose of the position is to connect private companies with public funds, which are ultimately managed by her husband.
Spanish media have been uncovering details of her work for more than a year, leading to several complaints filed against Gómez by citizens’ groups and the opening of a formal investigation that is still underway.
Now El Debate has revealed that Gómez registered a software program promoted through the university department she chairs in her own name. Additionally, she is listed as the sole proprietor of the company that sells the software to business. El Debate reports that according to the government documents it has seen related to the software, Gómez registered the name of the software as Transform TSC with the Ministry of Industry. She is listed in the documents as the owner of the software, using the address of the home where she and Sánchez lived before his election to the Spanish premiership. According to El Debate, the same software is promoted through Gómez’s university program. Indeed, the documents related to the registering the software that the news outlet cites state, “Both the Complutense University of Madrid and the rest of its collaborators carry out their management without any financial interest.”
A year later, the Patent and Trademark Office granted Gómez permission to use the software.
Also according to El Debate, though the university promotes the software, the money the software sales bring in is handled by a capital company of the same name, Transforma TSC. Incorporated a few months after the patent office granted permission to use the software, the company’s sole proprietor according to its filing is Begoña Gómez. The address for the company is a coworking center in Madrid.
The software helps small businesses track their business goals.
The Objective also reports that the co-director of the university program Gómez leads has won almost 100 public contracts since moving into the position, totalling approximately 25 million euros of business for the entrepreneur.
A poll taken for El Debate by Target Point found that 57% of Spaniards think Sánchez either needs to explain his wife’s business dealings or resign. Specifically, 34% of participants thought the premier had not responded to the questions on the situation posed in parliament by the opposition, namely the Partido Popular and VOX. True to his style, Sánchez has answered his accusers by calling his opponents “the far-right,” or pointing to historic cases of corruption in the PP, which have never reached the scale of financial corruption scandals Sánchez and his party are currently facing.
The PP has pledged to make Sánchez sit for questioning by a congressional investigation committee.
