The Central Operations Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard is at the top of a structure allegedly designed to defraud hydrocarbon taxes by entrepreneurs Víctor de Aldama and Claudio Rivas. Among them there would be up to 11 people whom the agents call “front men”, in charge of registering companies in their name or disguising criminal operations to make the operation more complex and make it more difficult for the authorities to track them. One of them is Javier Sequi, arrested in Tarragona on October 10, 2024, together with other members of the conspiracy, but who remained silent before judge Santiago Pedraz. Now, almost a year later, he has just asked the National Court to testify voluntarily.
The skein of case of hydrocarbonscomposed of more than a dozen defendants and as many overlapping companies, continues to unravel at the Central Court of Inquiry number 5 of the National Court, which is investigating a fraud that already reaches 231 million euros between 2021 and 2024. For this conspiracy, both Aldama and Claudio Rivas spent a few weeks in prison at the end of last year. The UCO arrested them in October and a month later, on November 21, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested the commissioner’s release, after having begun a collaboration with the justice system in which he spoke about the activities of the former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor Koldo García.
Almost a month later, on December 17, Judge Santiago Pedraz also agreed to release Claudio Rivas who, recently, as reported by these media, used one of the properties where the UCO believed hydrocarbon money could be stored for a hunting trip with more than 90 wild boars on Halloween.
The Guardia Civil places Aldama and Rivas as alleged co-directors of a fuel network that had veiled control of seven intermediary companies that, through straw men, would serve as a vehicle for the commission of the multi-million-dollar VAT fraud: Obaoil 3000, Salamanca Fuel Center, Canary Islands Fuel Company, Casmar Hidrocarburos, Carburantes Jalón-Plaza, Skyward Tech and Espaeventos. Through these companies, both suspects allegedly exploited the Villafuel company, which had the status of operator and, therefore, could purchase fuel in a tax warehouse which it then resold to distributors and petrol stations without declaring the taxes on these operations to the Treasury.
The summary of this investigation shows a list of names who acted as alleged frontmen for these companies behind the chain. One of these was, in fact, Javier Sequi, manager of the supplier Salamanca Fuel Center SL. The agents believe that this company was “used by the criminal organization to channel funds of criminal origin to Portugal, with the aim of keeping them away, hiding them and making their traceability difficult”.
Sequi sent a letter to Judge Pedraz – to which EL PAÍS had access – to explain that, although when he was called to testify he exercised his right not to do so, “the current legal leadership” deemed it “more appropriate for the defense of his interests and for an adequate clarification of what happened” to issue a voluntary statement. Furthermore, he claims that his accounts have been seized and that this makes it impossible for him to pay for his house, as well as water, electricity and waste taxes. For this reason he is asking for the embargo to be lifted in order to “meet the essential minimum that allows him to continue living in his habitual residence as well as being able to carry out a professional activity”.
The investigating judge scheduled the statement for December 9th, although defense sources specify that they had requested a postponement due to the incompatibility of that date with other previous judicial commitments. Salamanca Fuel, the company he manages, is attributed with a fraud of 34.6 million euros.
Sequi took the reins of this company immediately after Félix Aparicio, who founded it on November 24, 2022 and held it until March 2023, when it passed to Sequi. Aparicio is one of the businessmen closest to the commission agent and, according to sources close to the investigation, he is the person who went to Ibiza with Aldama this summer. A report from the Revenue Agency reveals that funds (2.5 million euros and 1.2 million euros) were diverted from the company managed first by Aparicio and then by Sequi to Atmosferaudaz, a company managed by Víctor de Aldama in Portugal. It is worth remembering that in the same month of June the Supreme Court refused Aldama to travel to the neighboring country “for professional reasons”.
