The Rubiales case and that of the Pujol clan, among those that will be judged in 2025

The year that has just started will see different very high-profile faces sit on the bench of the National Court (AN). In just over a month, on February 3, the trial of the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation begins Luis Rubialesfor the kiss to the soccer player Jenni Hermoso after the World Cup held in Sydney (Australia). For this matter he will be judged for 11 days. The Prosecutor’s Office requests a sentence of 2 years and 6 months for Rubiales for a crime of sexual assault –for the allegedly non-consensual kiss– and for a crime of coercion as author. Likewise, the former women’s coach is also being judged Jorge Vildathe former sports director of the national team Albert Luque and the person responsible for Marketing, Ruben Riverafor their possible participation in these alleged coercion.

Also the former president, Jordi Pujolwill mark the judicial calendar. Both he and his children are accused of allegedly forming a criminal organization who would have enriched himself for decades with corrupt activities using his political position. The oral hearing comes after a instruction of more than 10 years and the sessions will last until April 2026. In this matter, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is interested in a sentence of 9 years in prison for the former president of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol and even 29 for his firstborn, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, for crimes of criminal organization or illicit association, money laundering, crime against the Public Treasury and document falsification and frustration of execution in relation to the management of his assets. For the rest of the ‘clan’ the sentences range from 17 to eight years. Thus, for Jordi Pujol Ferrusola’s ex-wife, Mercé Gironés, a sentence of 17 years is requested for these five crimes, while for Josep Pujol the request is 14. For both Pere, Oleguer, Oriol, Mireia and Marta Pujol Ferrusola, eight years in prison are requested only for illicit association and money laundering.

To these two cases, we must add other relevant trials, such as the one that has been held since November 2024 and is expected to end at the end of January, the one that sees the Galician drug trafficker José Ramón Prado Bugallo, known as Miñanco Siteand which affects almost 50 more defendants, including Gonzalo Boye, lawyer of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office is seeking more than 9 years in prison for money laundering and other crimes.

New Rumasa and Nummaria

The National Court also has yet to communicate several relevant sentences from trials that have been held throughout 2024, among them that of the hearing that concluded last May and in which the six children of the businessman were tried – already deceased– José María Ruiz-Mateos for the alleged Nueva Rumasa scam.

In the indictment, the Public Ministry not only asked for a sentence for the six children, it also asked to sentence nine other defendants – all of them responsible for the group – to sentences ranging from 3 years in prison to 15 years and 6 months in prison for crimes of fraud, money laundering, seizure of assets and against the Public Treasury.

Another of the most anticipated sentences for 2025 is the one related to ‘Nummaria case’, in which, among others, the actors of the series ‘Cuéntame’ have been judged Imanol Arias and Ana Duato for alleged fraud against the Treasury.

It so happens that at the start of the oral hearing Arias reached an agreement in accordance with the Prosecutor’s Office by which he acknowledged up to five tax crimes and accepted a prison sentence of 2 years and 2 months for which he avoids going to prison.

Her co-star, Ana DuatoHowever, she has maintained from the beginning that she fully trusted her tax advisor Fernando Peña – who is most punished as the alleged person responsible for the Nummaria office – and that it was he who brought her all the statements to the Treasury that were investigated. He explained that he had the “peace of mind” that everything was “well done” because “the language of prosecutors is quite complicated.”

Added to these issues is also the ‘Fire cartel’ in which alleged rigging in firefighting contracts. In this matter, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office reduced the request for a sentence for Serafín Castellano – former Government delegate in the Valencian Community and former PP councilor – from 22 years to 2 years and 7 months in prison, after he recognized the facts that were they accuse him.

Cases under investigation: From Koldo to Alvise

The investigative courts of the AN, for their part, continue their work in high-profile cases such as the Koldo case‘ to find out if there was payment of bribes in the adjudication of public contracts for the purchase of masks. ANDThe matter has reached the Supreme Court regarding the alleged participation of former minister José Luis Ábalos in that plot, but the rest of the case remains in the hands of the AN.

The investigation also continues regarding the alleged pyramid scam that Madeira Invest Club allegedly perpetrated and that affects the MEP. Luis ‘Alvise’ Pérez. He Judge José Luis Calama agreed on December 20 to send to the Supreme Court the complaint filed by businessman Álvaro Romillo, alias ‘Cryptospain’, against the MEP, considering that there are “solid indications” of an alleged crime of illegal financing of political parties for having allegedly received 100,000 euros for their party ‘The Party is Over’. Calama, however, continues investigating this case in which the main person investigated is the businessman Alvaro Romillo.

Another open case, in this case for drug trafficking, is the one that affects the head of Economic Crimes and the fight against money laundering of the National Police in Madrid, who hid 20 million euros walled up in his house or the one who seeks to know if there was a extrajudicial investigation of Podemos politicians by order of the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior during the Government of Mariano Rajoy.