The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard estimates that the alleged partner of businessman Víctor de Aldama in the hydrocarbon fraud plot allocated “one million euros to buy the will” of former minister José Luis Ábalos to intercede on his behalf in obtaining a license that he ultimately did not obtain.
In a new report sent to the National Court, to which EFE had access, investigators explain how Claudio Rivas, the so-called “supreme leader” of the plot, asked Aldama to intercede to “obtain influence” from Ábalos, currently in preventive detention by order of the Supreme Court.
He asked – continues the UCO – that Aldama mediate with Ábalos, then Minister of Transport and organizational secretary of the PSOE, so that he could “exert his influence” by taking advantage of his positions, “in different ministerial bodies aware of or linked” to the processing of the file for granting the operator license of the Villafuel company, on which the plot pivots.
“All this in exchange for a previously agreed economic consideration”, maintains the UCO, which considers that the “payment” to the former minister was the delivery and enjoyment, “under the formal cover of a rental contract”, of a chalet in the La Alcaidesa urbanization (Cádiz), acquired by a Claudio Rivas company for 585,000 euros.
The plot infiltrated the Department of Transport, Industry and Ecological Transition
The Civil Guard identified businessmen Víctor de Aldama and Claudio Rivas as alleged leaders of the hydrocarbon plot linked to Villafuel that the National Court is investigating, indicating that they managed to infiltrate not only the management of the Ministry of Transport of José Luis Ábalos, but also that of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
In a report, the UCO describes “a criminal organization specialized in the commission of crimes against the Public Treasury in the strategic hydrocarbon sector, which operated through a corporate structure led by the operator Villafuel and others linked to the sector”.
The investigators specify that, “at the same time, the said criminal organization had another structure made up of commercial companies aimed at perfecting operations aimed at laundering the capital resulting from the illicit activities described.” La Benemérita has no doubt that “the highest leaders of this criminal organization” were Aldama and Rivas, the owner of Villafuel. “They held the decision, the control and the coordination of the two structures,” he says.
And he assures that there are “numerous indications which point to a possible penetration of the criminal organization at the management levels of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge”.
The infiltration was allegedly carried out through Aldama, “a person with access to the environment” of Ábalos, with the aim of “influencing the administrative resolution by which Villafuel would obtain authorization to operate in the wholesale hydrocarbon market, despite non-compliance with legal requirements”. “All this in exchange for economic compensation,” he emphasizes.
UCO claims hydrocarbon plot paid for cottage in Ábalos
The Civil Guard claims that the fraudulent plot in the hydrocarbon sector allegedly carried out among others by businessman Víctor de Aldama paid former minister José Luis Ábalos for the villa La Alcaidesa in Cádiz so that Villafuel could obtain the operator’s license.
“The shameless man is a son of a bitch. He robbed the house and pressed the button,” businesswoman Leonor González even told her associate Natán González, according to the latest report provided by the Armed Institute to National Court judge Santiago Pedraz. According to the agents, “the interlocutors attributed the granting of authorization to the prior purchase of the housing envisaged by the minister”.
The UCO emphasizes that the acquisition of this villa took place “after a research and selection process in which Koldo García, then advisor to Ábalos, actively participated. De Aldama also played a leading role, since he acted “as an intermediary between the minister and the criminal organization”, initiating “the necessary procedures for the acquisition” of the house.
“Regarding the aforementioned consent of the minister and what was the consideration that would have been agreed by Víctor de Aldama with Claudio Rivas, the conversation held with Koldo García, on December 27, 2020, one day before the first meeting of the criminal organization at MINCOTUR (Ministry of Industry and Tourism), clarified it,” the agents emphasize.
The Civil Guard emphasizes that Koldo sent it “four links from the Idealista real estate portal relating to properties for sale, among which was the one that, months later, the criminal organization delivered and made available to Ábalos, in La Alcaidesa”.
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