The largest alleged corruption case in Castile and León is finally before the court. After a decade of investigation and thousands of pages, the so-called wind power plot reaches the bench at the Provincial Court of Valladolid with a schedule that runs from September to the end of January 2026.
The trial, with institutional signal for accredited media, will examine whether for years maneuvered from the Economy to make wind farm permits conditional on the entry of local partners, and whether this practice generated a circuit of illicit profits and large-scale bribes.
Dates and structure of the macro trial
The Fourth Section is fixed 43 sessions: The first two days (September 15 and 16) are reserved for preliminary issues and possible agreements; the testimony will be held October 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 20 and 21 and will continue November 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, and 17.
The court then reserved nine expert evidence sessions on November 18, 19, 24, 25 and 26, and December 1, 2, 3 and 9. The statements of the accused and the reports of the parties will be 17 sessions between December 10, 11, 15, 16 and 17, and January 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28, 2026.
All hearings will start at 10 pm And, as happened in the Black Pearl case, the defendants will testify at the end. The Court reorganized the initial calendar and shortened the scheduled sessions, leaving the last scheduled date as January 28, 2026.
Who sits on the bench
Initially they were marked 16 defendants, but eventually they will be 14 in court: one has been excluded for health reasons and another is being investigated, the former head of EREN Manuel Ordóñez, died. Among those charged is the former Deputy Minister of Economy Raphael Delgado, already convicted for Black Pearl.
Also listed are businessmen linked to the sector, former executives of subsidiaries linked to the wind energy business, and alleged intermediaries. The Court also rejected the former president's testimony as a witness. John Vincent Herrera and the former counselor Pillar of the Elm, considering that their testimonies were not "relevant or useful".
The origin of the case and the prosecution's thesis
According to the prosecutor's brief Tomás Herranz, the Ministry of Economy saw the rise of renewable energy as an opportunity to "open the door" to companies in the region. From there, the then Deputy Minister Rafael Delgado, along with the late Minister Thomas Villanueva and the manager Ricardo Bravo (a subsidiary of Iberdrola), would have articulated a system to force the participation of local companies in projects with greater authorization options.
The participation that was supposedly required was around 40%, under the warning of not obtaining the administrative resolution if those partners were not accepted. For this purpose, they took over powers, concentrating the authorizations in the Vice-Ministry, and an additional phase was implemented, the so-called «evacuation competition», which was only surpassed by parks that included a local partner.
The accusatory account suggests that trusted companies were selected —Alberto and Francisco Esgueva, German Jose Martin, Andrés Martín de Paz or the brothers Patricio, Alejandro and Miguel Ángel Llorente— to receive shares in parks with the authorization in place. Among the notable cases is that of Alberto Esgueva, which would have obtained 47 million euros after an agreement with Iberdrola from a minimum investment.
Crimes investigated and position of the parties
The Public Prosecutor's Office attributes, depending on the case, prevarication, bribery, influence peddling, money laundering, tax fraud, extortion and belonging to a criminal group or organization. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office is working alongside the State Attorney, popular accusations (Ecologists in Action) and several private accusations from companies.
The opening of the trial order also pointed out to the Board as subsidiary civil liability for more than 24,1 millones de euros if Delgado does not cover certain compensations: 11,2 million with Iberdrola Renovables in Castilla y León, 7,84 million with Sinae Wind Investments and 5 million with La Boga Wind Farm.
Sentences and bail requested
Taken together, the charges call for 138 years in prison and fines that add up 848 millones de eurosThe greatest demand falls on Raphael Delgado: 42 years in jail y 239 million of a fine as a suspected ringleader.
Among the relevant requests are also Alberto Esgueva and Germán José Martín (12 years and fines of 68 and 14,5 million), the lawyer Jesus Rodriguez Recio (10 and a half years and more than 25 million), Cesar Hernandez (7 years and 1.888.000 euros) and others accused with 6 years and high fines: Ibércyl (100 million), Rafael Icaza (100 million), Francisco Esgueva, the Llorente brothers (45 million), Pedro Barriuso (100 million) and Andrés Martín de Paz (8 million). Maria del Mar Moreno are interested 4 years and 215.000 euros.
The investigating judge imposed bail to guarantee liability, which delayed the process more than a year due to the cascade of appeals. The Chamber that will preside over the trial does not include the judge Javier de Blas, author of the opening order, now forming part of Section 4.
Procedural calendar and organization in court
The news coverage will be carried out through a institutional signal distributed through YouTube, only for accredited media. The Court has ordered the evidence blocks to avoid overlaps and facilitate the appearance of the witnesses and experts summoned.
Judicial sources anticipate that they could come to light procedural incidents relevant, such as prescriptions or mitigating circumstances due to undue delays, given the age of some events and the length of the investigation.
Context and reactions
The procedure was born from a massive investigation that came to quantify in more than 80 million the alleged bribes linked to the processing of wind farm contracts between 2000 and 2015. At the same time, some cases have led to notable decisions, such as the Supreme Court's exoneration of Alberto Esgueva from an administrative fine of 20 million euros and another of 900.000 euros in VAT, due to jurisdictional errors in the Tax Agency's inspection.
From the regional government, the spokesperson Carlos Fernandez Carriedo has reiterated the maximum respect to the work of the courts, avoiding assessing the merits of the process by being former high officials of the Board among the accused.
The oral hearing will put under the microscope the wind power processing of a key stage in Castile and León and, with a exhaustive calendar and the main parties involved, it is expected to clear up the big unknowns of the case: how the authorizations were decided, who benefited and what criminal and civil liabilities are derived from those decisions.
