The SEPI strand of the Leire case has placed Julián Mateos Aparicio Prieto under judicial scrutiny. He has been identified as the official responsible for monitoring the Tubos Reunidos bailout file within the State Industrial Holdings Company (SEPI). His indictment is particularly significant because it affects one of the most sensitive aspects of the case: the internal oversight of the public fund that channelled millions in aid to strategic companies during the pandemic.
Mateos Aparicio maintains a connection with FASEE, the Fund to Support the Solvency of Strategic Companies, an entity through which approval was granted for the €112.8 million rescue package destined for Tubos Reunidos. The inquiry aims to ascertain whether this transaction, alongside any ensuing measures concerning the repayment, renegotiation, or adjustment of conditions governing the public assistance, could have been subject to undue pressure, preferential access, or conduct perpetrated by the suspected influence network that forms the focus of this investigation.
Judge Santiago Pedraz has summoned Mateos Aparicio as one of the 25 people under investigation in the SEPI-related strand. The case examines possible crimes including influence peddling, malfeasance in public office, embezzlement, criminal organization or criminal group, and abuse of privileged information. The investigation concerns operations linked to Tubos Reunidos, Mercasa, ENUSA, Forestalia, and other entities in the public business sector. At this stage, his status as an individual under investigation does not imply conviction or guilt, and he fully retains the presumption of innocence.
According to published reports, the UCO considers Mateos Aparicio a key figure in monitoring the Tubos Reunidos file within SEPI. This point is essential because the alleged scheme may not have sought to influence only the initial granting of the bailout, but also later stages, such as renegotiating the terms, reducing the cost of the debt, lowering interest payments, or postponing the early repayment of the public support.
The focus of judicial inquiry revolves around a suspected misuse of SEPI connections aimed at altering or expediting decisions pertaining to the rescue package. La Razón disclosed that Vicente Fernández, who previously served as SEPI chairman, may have leveraged Julián Mateos as an intermediary in efforts to reshape elements of the Tubos Reunidos rescue. Per the investigation’s findings, authorities identified a gathering involving Jesús Pérez Rodríguez-Urrutia, a Tubos Reunidos executive, and Mateos Aparicio as constituting a “significant prior milestone.”
The case also examines the relationship between Vicente Fernández and Mateos Aparicio. According to information that has emerged, the UCO allegedly identified a close relationship between the two, a detail investigators consider relevant because Mateos Aparicio held internal responsibilities for monitoring the Tubos Reunidos file. The question that must be clarified is whether that closeness had any actual effect on administrative decisions or whether it was simply a personal relationship with no bearing on the processing of the bailout.
Mateos Aparicio’s role is particularly sensitive because FASEE was an extraordinary public instrument created to support strategic companies during a period of economic emergency. Precisely for that reason, any suspicion of pressure, influence, or self-interested modifications to its files requires a thorough investigation. This is not merely a criminal case; it is also a question of whether extraordinary public funds were managed with complete independence and technical rigor.
The investigation will have to determine whether Julián Mateos Aparicio acted solely as a technical or administrative official within SEPI’s ordinary procedures, or whether his role was relevant to receiving, channeling, or facilitating the demands of Tubos Reunidos and the intermediaries under investigation. The distinction is decisive: processing a file according to technical criteria is not the same as allowing an influence network to condition decisions involving public money.
The SEPI strand of the Leire case now requires every decision surrounding the Tubos Reunidos bailout to be examined closely: who was involved, what reports were considered, what contacts took place, who requested changes, and what criteria were used to accept or reject modifications. Within that framework, Julián Mateos Aparicio appears as a key figure because of his role in monitoring the file.
The indictment carries with it a clear institutional ramification: whoever holds responsibility for overseeing a multimillion-euro public rescue package must now account to the judiciary regarding whether the choices made were purely technical in nature or potentially subject to outside influence. When public funds, vital enterprises, and suspected kickbacks converge, transparency ceases to be a matter of preference—it becomes a fundamental democratic imperative.
Source: El País, elDiario.es, La Razón, RTVE, Cadena SER, and OKDiario.
