The judicial process that has been conducted in secret since August 2, 2018 the judge of Tarragona Rubén Rus Vela about himself the office founded by former Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro He used his influence in the Government to benefit his clients includes emails in which the fiscal situation of the former vice president of the Executive and former Minister of Economy Rodrigo Rato is referred to, as confirmed by five sources who know the facts to this editorial office.
These sources assure that the judge in the case complained to the Ministry of Finance numerous emails. In fact, the Tarragona Court already advanced in one of its orders the “extreme complexity” of the case and the “huge and complex material seized” at the end of 2021.
The criminal relevance of these ’emails’, which refer among others to Rato and a journalist, was analyzed at the meeting of prosecutors held in Anti-Corruption on September 26, in which a majority (19 against 5) supported the decision from the head of the department, Alejandro Luzónnot to delve into the analysis of their content.
About Montoro
In his book ‘This is as far as we have come’, Rodrigo Rato criticizes the actions of Cristóbal Montoro, who was Minister of Finance when he was arrested. Specifically, he accuses him of know your wife’s income tax returnbut also that of a PP deputy, who was the husband of a Secretary of State: “We have investigated you and you have everything right, Cristóbal Montoro snapped in the Congress of Deputies,” Rato paraphrases the former Minister of Finance.
And he directly points out that he is responsible for these irregularities: “Montoro embarked on a dubious path, In some cases it borders on illegality, by airing tax data of certain individuals or threatening groups such as the media, athletes and actors and even political rivals with the information in the hands of the Tax Agency. There were numerous control sessions in Congress in which he made these threats, which the next day appeared leaked in some media. Let us not forget that it was the Minister of Justice, Rafael Catalá, who confirmed the information that I had taken advantage of the tax amnesty.”
Finally, Rato’s publication draws attention to the fact that his arrest was carried out “a mob of agents with vests from the Customs Service”, dependent on the Ministry of Finance. “The registration occurred due to a complaint filed by the ONIF, a section of the Tax Agency, before the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office.'” This action, always according to Rato, was directed by “Luis Agustín Terán, one of the authors of the so-called ‘early complaint’ that had given rise to the arrest,” concludes the former vice president of the Government.
Recently, the Provincial Court of Madrid has agreed that the trial against Rato for alleged crimes against the Public Treasury, money laundering and corruption in business will be held starting December 12.
The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was prosecuted in the case that began following an investigation by the National Fraud Investigation Office (ONIF) which culminated in a report prepared on July 21, 2015 by two officials, in which the name of the then chief inspector of the organization, Marga García-Valdecasas Salgado, also appears.
Criticisms of García-Valdecasas
García-Valdecasas Salgado It has also been the subject of Rato’s criticism. In his book, the former vice president of the Government assures that when he was summoned to testify by the judge in the case, Antonio Serrano Arnal, the director of the ONIF “refused to sign the early complaint” that gave rise to the case for which he is going to to be judged. “But still the judge forced her to testify. He said that he had first presented the case to Alejandro Luzón, prosecutor of the National Court [en realidad estaba en Anticorrupción], who had not seen sufficient basis in the complaint. He then went to the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office, where Javier Rodrigo from France agreed to file the complaint,” writes the former vice president of the PP Government literally.
Rato also maintains that ONIF sent 18 “intermediate reports to the court, which had nothing to do with the case.” The final report did not arrive until July 2021: “A tax case that had not been preceded by a formal inspection, which came with a request for arrest and the seizure of twelve million documents, was not accompanied by a definitive report of accusations. It seemed more “Well, it was about finding whatever it was to justify that search. In fact, the ONIF reports on topics unrelated to those first accusations indicated a great prospective investigation into my entire professional career,” laments the former Minister of Economy, who defines the work of Treasury officials: “Total impunity.”
Rato was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for the Cajamadrid black card case, but was nevertheless acquitted in the Bakia case, which was investigated by the now head of Anti-Corruption, Alejandro Luzón.
An email from September
This newspaper exclusively revealed that in the secret case of Tarragona there is an email dated September 26, 2017 in which the chief inspector of the ONIF, the director of the Tax Agency and the director of the Financial and Tax Inspection exchange opinions on a alleged inspection of ‘ABC’ journalist Javier Chicote. The ’email’ includes as an attachment a tax report on the informant and his family. Months before, he had published different news about the complaint filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office against those responsible for the law firm that Montoro created in 2006, but from which the former minister claims to have left in 2008.
Related news
In this 2017 procedure, which was investigated in a Madrid court, Ricardo Montoro, brother of the former Minister of Finance, the executive president of Equipo Economico and former chief of staff of Montoro 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 Gallud, who directed the Tax Agency between 2001 and 2004. The case was filed two years later.
In the case that the Tarragona judge is secretly investigating, they remain investigated the executive president of the Equipo Economico office and former chief of staff of Montoro, Ricardo Martínez Rico, and the managing partners of the firm Manuel de Vicente-Tutor and Salvador Ruiz Gallud, who directed the Tax Agency between 2001 and 2004.