The Hydrocarbons case examined by National Court judge Santiago Pedraz continues to advance following a report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. Last Thursday, it emerged that the plot led by commission agent Víctor de Aldama and his … his partner Claudio Rivas would have spent “1 kilo” to buy political wills like that of former minister José Luis Ábalos and, therefore, would have “penetrated” the organizational chart of several ministries to obtain a wholesale operator license for Villafuel SL. This gave them access to a “multi-million dollar” VAT fraud through allegedly “fake” supply companies deceived by front men.
One of the main concerns of the Armed Institute in this investigation was to find the money that the criminal organization looted from the public coffers (the first reports from the UCO estimated the fraud at 182 million euros) and for this they carried out searches and letters rogatory were ordered to find it. One of the clues that was followed was that of telephone conversations held by the people surveyed. In one of them, to which ABC had access, we hear Claudio Rivas himself speaking with one of his trusted men, Felipe Romero, whom he asks to go to a farm in Mora (Toledo) to collect money.
In the transcript of the conversation, produced by the UCO, we can read that Rivas asks Romero If you can go to this farm because you need money to give to someone else“an uncle”. Rivas’ confidant tells him that perhaps someone named Ana could do him this favor, but the lead investigator rejects this option: “But hell no, we have to go up to the (inaudible), look for the keys… Pf… God’s.” After that, Rivas told him: “Nothing is happening. “I’ll call Victor.” According to investigators, this Víctor could be De Aldama himself.
In fact, the UCO points out that from the conversation they understand that those who knew where the money is kept are “Claudio Rivas, Felipe Romero and Victor de Aldamasince it seems to be hidden in the farm.
Romero, who also seems linked to the company Have Got Time, with which he bought the chalet in La Alcaidesa (Cádiz) which was allegedly made available to former minister José Luis Ábalos as a gift, was also said to have been one of the organizers of the November hunt in Matasanos through the company Cacerías Sierra España. Furthermore, Benemérita claims to have received payments of up to 7,293 euros from the provider Espaeventos -investigated- and which appears to be a commercial company of two other companies also investigated: Obaoil 3000 and Casmar Hidrocarburos.
plot properties
It should be remembered that, according to UCO reports, Rivas is the real owner of Finca Matasanos located in Cilleros (Cáceres), where on November 1 he organized a hunt in which he allegedly participated, and that, according to the investigation, a second farm is also the owner in Mora (Toledo). The researchers came to this conclusion after capturing a conversation between the investigator himself and an architect to whom he admitted that They had billed him 4.2 million euros for certain work carried out in this enclave. “This implies a significant investment for property that was not yours,” specifies the Benemérita report.
Even though it was clear from this conversation between Rivas and Romero that the criminal organization was hiding money in the Mora Game Reserve, the UCO, once it found this property and was able to carry out the search, did not find it. In the report drawn up on the archives, it is indicated that in two inscriptions made in this city, a weapons rack – a sort of safe for storing weapons -, several quads, a silencer and a few televisions.
To this new audio we must add another one advanced by ‘The Objective’ and to which ABC also had access, which recorded a conversation between Rivas and his wife Stella Duarte in which they talk about an error when counting the tickets they kept in bags. “You don’t know how to count large parcels, you made parcels of 500 euros instead of making them of 1,000 euros,” she reproached him to tell him that she was now having difficulty paying certain cash payments. Rivas replied to his wife that he would have said it wrong, but he offered her a solution: “go down to the big rack and that’s it.”
The UCO emphasizes that thanks to these calls it was established that Rivas “used, kept and hid cash in safes and in properties secretly managed by him”: they indicate that this money could be linked to the sums defrauded by the various companies in the network.
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