This Monday, Pedraz sent Aldama and his partner, the businessman, to temporary prison. Claudio Rivas.
Depending on the order in which the judge expresses this decision, the alleged criminal organization “designed, implemented and operated a parallel commercial structure (…) to perfect the laundering of illicitly generated funds.
Pedraz is investigating Rivas and Aldama as alleged leaders of a conspiracy that allegedly defrauded more than 182 million euros to the Public Treasury. The aforementioned decree concerns the movement of money —“criminal funds”— from hydrocarbon supply companies to other companies linked to the alleged conspiracy.
“Given that the money comes from the suppliers (commercial companies which are used to lower the price of hydrocarbons with the VAT which they are not going to pay), all the money which transferred comes from allegedly defrauded charges», underlines the magistrate. “Transfers abroad have been identified for an amount of 73,902,852.60 euros in Portugal, Colombia and China,” he calculates.
The magistrate explains that this corporate structure was designed and structured in such a way that Claudio Rivas and Víctor de Aldama, “with general power over it, were veiled and apparently dissociated from it.”
For that —continue—, They formed a network of companies managed by Maria Luisa Rivas [hermana de Claudio]among which the parent companies Still Growing SL and Villafuel SL stand out.
Like Claudio and Víctor de Aldama, María Luisa was arrested last Monday by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. However, this Thursday, Pedraz refused to send him to prison, as he did for the other two people arrested.
As the documentation of this court case shows, this network of hydrocarbon companies allegedly committed fraud against the public treasury worth more than 182 million euros.
Aldama was, according to Benemérita, “the first link in a criminal organization that operates in the hydrocarbon sector” and in which he places him as “one of its main leaders”.
The investigation revealed that Villafuel SL would be a company created ad hoc “to be able to maintain the title of operator, a title which allowed the criminal organization to operate on the market through the instrumental structure of suppliers.” Thus, they could “perfect the fraud”.
Movable and immovable property
Concerning the alleged money laundering, Judge Pedraz and the UCO trace the movements of money from Portuguese companies to the company MTM 180 Capital SL, controlled by Aldama and which was already included in the trial summary. Koldo affaira legal case for which the businessman is also under investigation, as he is considered the intermediary of another conspiracy, allegedly dedicated to the collection of illegal commissions through public procurement.
These funds would eventually be transformed into “movable property, real estate, high-end wines, jewelry or other consumer goods”. “All these fund transfer operations would have been covered by alleged service provision contracts,” the order specifies.
According to the analysis of the Civil Guard, the creation of this commercial structure had two clearly differentiated objectives. The first, aimed at “perfection of fraud”. The second, “clearly oriented towards money laundering”.
