The Court of Instruction number 15 of Madrid investigates hypotheses money laundering and tax fraud crimes that the airline Plus Ultra would have engaged in operations linked to Venezuelan oil.
This is what judicial sources detail to EL ESPAÑOL, after this Thursday Judge Esperanza Collazos ordered the arrest of Roberto RoselliCEO of Plus Ultra, and Julio Martinezpresident of the airline.
This same judge has already investigated, until 2023, the controversial rescue of Sepi, which is worth 53 million eurosthat this company received from the government of Pedro Sánchez.
However, in January 2023, she was forced to archive the court file after extending it out of time.
As EL ESPAÑOL explains through the same sources, the case in which Roselli and Martínez were arrested is a branch of this one, constituted as a separate piece. For now, remains subject to summary secrecy and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office participates.
As this newspaper learned, the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police also arrested at least one other person. He is a businessman whose identity has not been revealed.
The three people arrested were transferred this Thursday to the Canillas police complex, in Madrid, and will soon be brought to justice. In fact, it is not excluded that they will do so next Saturday, when the Court of Instruction 15 is in office for speedy trials.
This Thursday, UDEF also went to the headquarters of Plus Ultra, a company with Venezuelan capital, to request tax information of it.
Its controversial bailout, worth more than €53 million, took place last year. 2021. It was the airline itself that requested this aid to Sepi (the Spanish Company of Industrial Participations) in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Jose Luis Abalos He was Minister of Transport.
On the other hand, this Wednesday, he was arrested, as part of another secret legal case – in this case led by the National Court -, Vicente Fernándezformer president of Sepi.
The rescue of Plus Ultra
Last July, the European Commission announced that it would study whether the rescue of Plus Ultra, in which it had played a mediating role José Luis Rodriguez Zapaterowhether or not it complies with the European Union treaties.
In addition, the PP then demanded a specific audit from the European Court of Auditors on the use of public funds in this operation.
The direct intervention of the former president of the socialist government focused on possible irregularities and possible partisan use of European resources.
In fact, Plus Ultra had in 2021 less than 0.1% of the national market. And despite this, it was one of the 21 beneficiaries of the Solvency Support Fund for Strategic Companies (FASEE) that the Spanish government created during the coronavirus pandemic.
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