Editor’s Note
**Editor’s Note:** This article reports on the valuation of jewelry seized from former Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero’s office, as part of the ongoing Plus Ultra investigation. The information is sourced from judicial and expert reports.
MADRID (EP). The jewelry store commissioned by the judge of the National High Court, José Luis Calama, who is investigating the Plus Ultra case, has valued the jewelry seized from a safe in the office of former Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero at €1.3 million.
This value was calculated by the jewelry store Ansorena, with the collaboration of the Spanish Gemological Institute, as reported by Okdiario and confirmed to Europa Press by sources close to the case.
Calama ordered the analysis of the jewelry to “determine its nature, authenticity, and economic replacement value,” as well as the manufacturer, the jeweler’s stamp or brand, and the approximate date of manufacture. This was done without prejudice to a subsequent expert appraisal covering “other analytical data of interest,” he added.
The judge commissioned the work to a jewelry store “after prior oath or promise” and specified that it would be documented by the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police, “with expression of all necessary requirements for compliance with the chain of custody.”
According to the police report on the entry and search of the former president’s office, Zapatero’s secretary, present during the proceedings, attributed the origin of the jewelry to the family inheritance of Sonsoles Espinosa, wife of the former socialist leader, and to “gifts from trips.”
The UDEF seized watches, necklaces, bracelets, and other items during the search carried out on May 19, which took place after the former president was charged, as the judge considered him to be allegedly the leader of a presumed influence-peddling network in the context of the €53 million bailout that the government granted to the Spanish airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic.