The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz sent the businessman Víctor de Aldama – the alleged author of the “Koldo affair” – and his associate, Claudio Rivas, to the provisional prison, with notice and without bail, for their alleged participation in a fraud. against the Public Treasury of more than 182 million euros in the hydrocarbon sector.
This is indicated by an order, collected by Europa Press, issued by the president of the Central Investigating Court number 5 after collecting the statements of the two detainees and Rivas’ sister, María Luisa, this Thursday. Judicial sources told Europa Press that the anti-corruption prosecution had requested prison for Aldama and Rivas, but not for his sister. All were arrested this Monday by the Civil Guard.
Aldama and the other people involved in this alleged corruption plot had been in the Tres Cantos police stations in Madrid since Monday.
Along with the arrests, agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) searched a property in the municipality of Coria, in Cáceres, owned by Claudio Rivas, who, together with Aldama, is at the head of the alleged network that, according to the anti-corruption prosecution would have reached “a great capacity for corruption of administration officials”.
The government delegate in Extremadura, José Luis Quintana, spoke about this procedure on Tuesday in Cáceres, when asked about the registration of a property in collaboration with agents of the Civil Guard of this region.
As the government delegate explained, this is a case that “has nothing to do” with the “Koldo case” and which focuses on an alleged hydrocarbon fraud, in which “the same person coincides “. Quintana explained that the Civil Guard carried out a search, but “no money was found and there were no arrests.”
“Unlike other ordinary criminal organizations, the type of criminal structure we are working on implies great complexity for the investigation, because its activity in a legal sector such as that of hydrocarbons, added to the millionaire profits obtained in “Very delays “courts allow these organizations to position themselves in certain sectors with different spheres of power, achieving a high capacity for corruption of Administration officials”, affirms Anticorrupción.
The hydrocarbon plot file, declared secret, is headed by Judge Santiago Pedraz, president of the Central Investigation Court Number 5 of the National Court. 14 arrests and 11 entries and searches were ordered at homes and company headquarters, in several Spanish provinces, mainly in Madrid, Salamanca and Cáceres.
