The head of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Tarragona, Rubén Rus Vela, who is secretly investigating whether the office founded by the former minister Cristóbal Montoro used his “influences” in the Ministry of Finance for the benefit of his clientstries to determine if the Tax Agency opened a tax inspection to a journalist after he reported on alleged irregularities committed by the law firmwhich was created in 2006 under the name “Montoro y Asociados”, in 2008 it was renamed “Economic Team” and since 2016 it has been called “Global Afteli”.
A police report included in the case, which was opened in December 2018 and has remained secret since then, includes an email sent between members of the Tax Agency on September 26, 2017 containing an “analysis” of the informant’s accounts. This documentation refers to several of the journalist’s closest relatives, according to the information consulted by this newspaper.
The Treasury inspection took place, according to the different sources consulted, months after the journalist published between April and November 2017 -when Montoro was still Minister of Finance-, a battery of information about a complaint filed by Anti-Corruption in relation to a contract of Economic Team with chambers of commercewhich shortly after agreed to investigate the Court number 22 of Madrid.
An email’
The ’email’ reflects the exchange of opinions between two officials from the Tax Agency about the journalist’s tax activities. ““We are going to send an information sheet with tax significance (FITT) to Madrid for uploading to the Inspection plan.”he adds, attaching to the email a detailed report about the professional, who did not receive any communication about the file.
On dates prior to this email conversation, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office had filed aa complaint against several of the partners of the law firm, among whom was Ricardo Montorobrother of the former minister, suspecting that members of Mariano Rajoy’s Government had demanded the hiring of the Economic Team, a decision that the journalist published.
In this complaint, the Public Ministry also pointed out that the firm could have promoted legislative changes for the benefit of its clients. The case, focused on a contract with the chambers of commerce, was provisionally archived two years later, in 2019.
Three investigated
In this 2017 procedure, in addition to Montoro’s brother, the executive president of Equipo Economico and Montoro’s former chief of staff in the Ministry of Finance, Ricardo Martínez Rico, appeared as investigated; and the managing partners of the firm Manuel de Vicente-Tutor and Salvador Ruiz Galludwho directed the Tax Agency between 2001 and 2004.
Related news
The three are being investigated again in the secret case of Tarragona, in which it is also investigated whether this law firm influenced favorable legislative reforms for the gas companies included in the Association of Industrial and Medicinal Gas Manufacturers (AGGIM).
Former Minister Cristóbal Montoro has always assured that he left the office in 2008.