Partner of Víctor de Aldama in the hydrocarbons file, Claudio Rivas, requests his release after the last confessions which was held this Thursday at the National Court. The leader of Koldo affair and of hydrocarbons affair He was released after pulling the blanket. However, his partner remains in Soto del Real due to VAT fraud with Villafuel SL thanks to the license granted by the government of Pedro Sánchez. The comparative grievance between the two is clear and Rivas’ legal defense made this known to the judge. Santiago Pedraz who will have to study the request after having received the corresponding report from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
The reasons for staying temporarily in prison are always the risk of emptyingpossibility of destruction of evidence and avoid repetition of the crime. Claudio Rivas has the same assessment of these three variables. If Aldama has now been able to leave Soto del Real, Rivas hopes the same will happen in his case.
On the other hand, it was pointed out that in his statement, Aldama tiptoe on the role of Claudio Rivas. Far from fully implicating him in the illegalities he describes, he mentions it in a friendly manner. On the contrary, he accuses Rivas’ former collaborators. Some sources consider that the leader of Koldo affair He concealed before the National Court his companion, who also enriched himself thanks to the license obtained from the ministry of Teresa Ribera, to claim his freedom with precautionary measures.
The document was presented in recent hours and, for the moment, it has not been studied by the prosecution. In any case, Rivas’ request arrives a crucial moment of the case, since Aldama also promised to collaborate in clarifying the truth in the case of hydrocarbons, which is the subject of an investigation at the Central Investigating Court number 5, headed by Pedraz. The businessman has remained in temporary prison for more than a month. He shared a module with Aldama and saw with surprise, but satisfaction, that the other accused in the case that sent them to prison left the correctional center.
Rivas’ defense emphasized, according to criminal lawyers, that the time spent in prison and the progress of the investigations eliminated the risks of destruction of evidence or a possible escape which initially justified his entry into prison. Even if he has contacts abroad, the truth is that Aldama does too and this did not pose a problem for Pedraz to order his provisional release. It is possible that after incriminating himself for several crimes, Aldama I have to go back behind bars after a hypothetical conviction in several years, when the oral trial should be held before the National Court.
Investigators estimate that the scheme made it possible to defraud more than 182 million euros thanks to a complex network of ghost companies and simulated operations on the hydrocarbon market. He modus operandi It was about the importation of fuel, without paying VAT, – supposedly from countries like Venezuela – and after marketing, charging VAT, the company disappeared and did not transfer the VAT to the public coffers of Spain.
The case shook the hydrocarbon sector in Spain and revealed the vulnerabilities of the tax control system in the international fuel trade. One in four euros of gasoline sold contains VAT fraud, sector associations estimate. The investigation uncovered a network which operated in several countries and benefited from the collaboration of specialized professionals.
The researchers were able to document how the organization used front companies in different jurisdictions to make it difficult to track the money and how he took advantage of differences in tax regulations between countries to evade tax. As OKDIARIO published, Aldama had businesses and was able to hide money in the United States (Miami), Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, Portugal (Elvas and Lisbon), Equatorial Guinea, in Cuba and China.
Immediate fraud
This affair also highlighted the need to strengthen control mechanisms in the hydrocarbons sector and improve coordination between the different international tax administrations. As revealed by OKDIARIO, the Tax Agency, under the government of Pedro Sánchez, identified that fraud in the payment of VAT by the company Villafuel SL had begun in November 2022barely a month and a half after obtaining your license operator. This license was obtained thanks to the contacts of the conspiracy led by ministerial advisor Koldo García.
Those responsible for the conspiracy, who used figureheadscommitted fraud during more than a year without the Ministry of Finance taking measures to put an end to it. It is only when January 2024 when they were informed of the start of a “verification procedure» linked to the alleged fraud, which began in November 2022. Finally, the company ceased its activity after being suspended from the Register of Tax Deposit Extractors (Redef), in March 2024.
The license, according to the pre-trial detention order issued by Judge Pedraz, would have been obtained thanks to an alleged bribe on the ground in September 2022. A meeting took place at the Ministry of Industry with the chief of staff of Reyes Maroto and later at the Ministry of Ecological Transition, of Teresa Ribera, who ended up giving approval to the company .
The annual accounts of Villafuel SL, to which OKDIARIO had access, include a tax audit focused on the period between November 2022 and February 2023. Instead of attempting to delay its allegedly criminal activity, Villafuel SL launched its fraudulent scheme almost immediately after obtaining the licensedefrauding, according to the Court’s investigation, up to 182,513,923 euros in VAT over 16 months, in collaboration with other companies.
