The main accused in the trial of the actors of the series ‘Tell me how it happened’, Imanol Arias and Ana Duatocategorically denied being behind the creation of a corporate structure designed to evade tax and assured that Neither he nor the performers “ever intended to do anything illegal.”“.
Fernando Peñaformer Treasury inspector, spoke this Wednesday in the trial being held by the National Court against nearly thirty accusedincluding popular actors, and in which he faces the highest sentence requested, 298 years in prison.
In his statement, to which he only responded to his lawyer, the former minister Antonio CamachoPeña has denied one by one all the accusations of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, which accuses him of having led the criminal organization with which the tax fraud was committed through opaque business structures designed by the law firm Nummaria, of which he said he was a minority partner.
The accused described as “regrettable“what happened to two of his clients, Imanol Arias and Ana Duato, also accused in this procedure, and he denied having imagined or created any structure intended to avoid paying taxes.
Imanol Arias reached an agreement with the prosecution at the beginning of the trial in which he assumed a fraud of around 2 million euros and accepted a sentence of two years and two months in prison – which does not involve imprisonment; while Ana Duato defends her innocence and rejects the prosecutor’s accusation, which attributes to her an alleged fraud of 1.9 million euros between 2010 and 2017 and requests a sentence of 32 years.
Fernando Peña criticized the “image” that they “try to transmit” in the procedure that he does not comply with his tax obligations and is dedicated “to preaching that others” do not do it either.
“It’s quite the opposite; always, anyone who has listened to me will have heard me say every time you have to pay taxes“the fair, the legal, but taxes must be paid,” he assured. After denouncing the “absolute helplessness” felt in this procedure, he explained that, although he did not agree with the tax authorities’ thesis, he recommended Ana Duato to pay the taxes. Treasury an amount that she claimed after opening a file on the grounds that she had not correctly declared several tax years, and she clarified that after an appeal, she had been right.
The prosecutor, with whom Peña’s lawyer had several clashes during the interrogation, believes that Nummaria’s office tried to transform the income from the professional activity derived from their work as actors into a life annuity “with the aim of illegally enjoying” the bonus they enjoy. contemplates. He accuses Peña of having created a network of companies and controlling several companies based outside Spain, mainly in Spain. Costa Rica and Englandto “facilitate the opacity of the functioning of the Nummaria office”.
The accused rejected it and criticized the actions of the Tax Agency, while defending that the corporate structure they used is regulated at European level and protected by European legislation. He clarified that the companies paid all taxes and questioned the accusation of the alleged Ana Duato fraud in 2017 and other defendants, while at that time the office no longer existed, it was “dismantled” after the entry and search by security forces.
