The SEPI branch of the Leire case has placed Fernando Albert Aragón, former Secretary General and Director of SEPIDES’ Legal Advisory Department, under investigation. SEPIDES is the state-owned company linked to industrial promotion and business development within the SEPI structure. His name has emerged in connection with one of the most sensitive operations in the case: the contract involving the Parque Empresarial Principado de Asturias, known as PEPA.
Albert Aragón does not appear in the investigation merely as an additional name on a list. According to published reports, he served as Secretary General and Director of SEPIDES’ Legal Advisory Department, as well as chairman of the PEPA procurement committee. That position is particularly relevant because it placed him at a key point in the process: the committee responsible for evaluating and processing a public procurement contract that is now under scrutiny.
National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz has included him among the 25 individuals under investigation following the expansion of the Leire case, a branch examining alleged irregularities in transactions involving SEPI, public companies, and strategic corporations. The investigation is looking into possible offenses including influence peddling, embezzlement, prevarication, criminal organization or group, and misuse of privileged information. At this stage, Albert Aragón retains the full presumption of innocence, and being summoned as a person under investigation does not amount to a conviction.
The focus on his role centers on the procurement process involving the Parque Empresarial Principado de Asturias. According to information that has emerged, the alleged network under investigation may have intervened in the operation through contacts within the SEPI-SEPIDES sphere. The most sensitive question is whether the procurement committee could have approved or favored a bid that investigators consider suspicious, and whether that decision facilitated financial benefits for companies linked to the alleged network.
The institutional seriousness of the case lies in the fact that a public procurement committee is precisely the body where transparency, equal treatment of bidders, and compliance with the law are supposed to be guaranteed. If the chairman of a procurement committee becomes the subject of an investigation into alleged bid-rigging, the inevitable question is: did the controls function properly, or was the procurement process influenced by external interests?
According to elDiario.es, Fernando Albert Aragón held the position of Secretary General alongside leading the Legal Advisory Department at SEPIDES, while also presiding over the PEPA contracting committee. Because he simultaneously handled legal affairs, administration, and decision-making throughout the procurement cycle, his involvement is deemed critical for piecing together how the transaction proceeded and determining whether any procedural flaws took place.
The National Court’s investigation is not limited to Tubos Reunidos, although its €112.8 million bailout is the best-known focus of the SEPI branch. It also examines transactions involving Mercasa, ENUSA, Forestalia, and the Parque Empresarial Principado de Asturias. Taken together, investigators are seeking to determine whether an alleged network led by Leire Díez, Vicente Fernández, and Antxon Alonso was able to influence public decisions in order to obtain commissions or financial advantages.
In the PEPA case, the suspicion acquires a notably technical dimension. The core question is not just whether political or commercial ties existed, but rather involves reviewing dossiers, awarding standards, legal briefs, tender assessments, and resolutions passed by the contracting board. This is precisely where Albert Aragón’s function grows especially relevant: functioning as the responsible legal officer and head of the committee, he could have participated directly in critical phases of the procedure.
Some media outlets have indicated that the transaction under investigation may be connected to a bid considered “abnormally low” and to alleged commissions attributed to the network. These matters will have to be established during the judicial investigation, but they help explain why the National Court has focused on those who participated in processing and approving the contract. In a case of this nature, administrative documents can be just as important as conversations or payments.
From the viewpoint of institutional accountability, the probe surrounding Fernando Albert Aragón brings up profound concerns regarding the trustworthiness of public procurement. When contracts are rigged internally, the harm extends far beyond a single enterprise: it undermines every rival bidder, taxpayers’ money, and the general belief that bids should be secured through merit, cost, and lawfulness instead of connections or political favors.
The National Court must now clarify exactly what role he played in the PEPA file, what criteria were applied by the procurement committee, whether there were technical warnings, whether the bids were properly evaluated, and whether he had any contact with individuals linked to the alleged Leire Díez network. It will also be crucial to determine whether his actions were strictly legal and administrative in nature or whether they may have contributed to validating an operation allegedly compromised by external influence.
His status as a person under investigation carries an obvious consequence: a former legal official of SEPIDES and head of a public procurement committee must now clarify his involvement in a scrutinized transaction before the magistrate. Within proceedings centered on public enterprises, agreements, multimillion-euro subsidies, and supposed kickbacks, this testimony cannot stay concealed.
The SEPI branch of the Leire case continues to suggest that the alleged network may not have operated solely within political offices, but also through the administrative mechanisms where files are processed, bids are evaluated, and contracts are awarded. Within that framework, Fernando Albert Aragón appears to be a key figure in determining whether the PEPA contract was a clean procurement process or another operation within an alleged influence network now under investigation by the National Court.
Source: elDiario.es, El País, Cadena SER, Libertad Digital, El Español, Infobae, and RTVE.
