The Crespo Gomar case and the PSPV-PSOE electoral financing allegations
In the ongoing investigation of the Azud case, Crespo Gomar SL emerges as the entity linked to the electoral actions of the PSPV and Bloc during the 2007 and 2008 elections. Four years ago, the company faced scrutiny over an alleged election crime attributed to collaboration with the two accused parties, an accusation that, at least at that time, appeared subject to prescription.
Although Crespo Gomar SL has since been dissolved, Civil Guard investigators from the Central Operations Unit (UCO) encountered it while reviewing the records of Cronosport SL, a supplier responsible for the PSPV-PSOE’s regional and municipal election advertising materials in 2007 and, collectively, 2008. The inquiry suggested that private firms may have been paid in exchange for urban favors or public works contracts.
For accounting purposes, Cronosport SL reported €72,629.51 in revenue from Crespo Gomar SL in 2007. Of this sum, at least €17,397.68 was linked to what Cronosport claimed involved a payment of €20,000 for work conducted on behalf of the PSOE, according to notes that included the party’s logo and three backpacks supplied to the campaign, as reflected in the latest UCO documentation.
Investigators also pursued documents seized from José María Cataluña, who served as the PSPV-PSOE’s finance secretary from 1999 to 2004. A handwritten file titled “Crespo, Gomar” laid out a series of payments for 2005, 2006, and 2007. A plan described two installments of €60,000 every two months for 2005, €25,000 per month in 2006, and additional sums totaling €600,000 across 2007, split into four €45,000 portions. A separate typed page outlined the same subscriptions with a different start date in Alzira and provided commentary that the agency aimed to finish the billing for 2006 at the rate of €45,000 for the remaining five months of that year.
Alzira stands out because it is the location of Construcciones Blauverd’s registered office, a company that also benefited from Crespo Gomar’s services in 2005 and 2006. In a surprising turn, authorities seized securities from a former PSPV head of finance. The invoices issued to Construcciones Blauverd matched the figures and dates seen in Cataluña’s seized documents. Based on this alignment, it is inferred that Blauverd financed PSPV through Crespo Gomar SL, although the UCO did not formally state this in its published report. Some elements of these patterns had already been anticipated by investigators.
The election offense case opened in 2018 as anticipated
As if stepping out of a Dickensian tale, past events re-enter the narrative to confront PSPV. In April 2018, the President of the 21st Investigation Court of Valencia noted the reason behind the alleged election offense that PSPV and Bloc could have committed. The court acknowledged that four companies had paid a total of €255,140 to Crespo Gomar SL for election actions connected to the 2007 regional and municipal campaigns. The documents that initiated the case were handed to the money-laundering division of the Judicial Police on 22 November 2016, by José Císcar, then the general coordinator of the popular parliamentary group in the Corts.
The charging narrative described an election crime involving both parties in 2007, with criminalization of alleged illegal financing not fully formalized until 2015, when the relevant provisions were incorporated into the Criminal Code. The investigation into Crespo Gomar and the alleged favorable treatment of two ministries and two city councils led to multiple inquiries in Madrid, Gandia, and Benidorm, though these moves often faced difficulties due to a lack of conclusive evidence.
The broader inquiry examined how Crespo Gomar might have aided the PSPV by providing services that facilitated campaign activities, while the chronology indicated a long arc of scrutiny stretching over several years. The investigative trail reflects the interplay between political financing, private contracting, and municipal outcomes, with authorities tracing the flow of funds and the corresponding timing of invoices and contracts.
Overall, the case highlights the complexity of political finance, the persistence of monitoring by judicial authorities, and the challenge of proving causal links between campaign expenditures and electoral advantages within the framework of national law and regional governance.