Treasury values Villarejo tax fraud at €1.6 million over 'Project King'
A new report from the Tax Agency details how the retired commissioner concealed millionaire income through companies in Panama, Uruguay and the United Kingdom.
Treasury proves Villarejo's million-euro fraud through offshore corporate structure
The Spanish Tax Agency has sent the National Court a report of nearly 300 pages concluding that retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo defrauded the Treasury of more than €1.6 million in 2012, according to elpais.com. Treasury officials determined that the police officer arranged "a complex corporate structure" abroad—with operations in Panama, Uruguay and the United Kingdom—to "conceal" payments received for one of his private espionage assignments. Those income sources, according to the officials, were never reported to Spanish fiscal authorities.
The report was sent last April to the investigating court of the National Court that has maintained an open file since 2017 regarding the commissioner's activities. Villarejo is being prosecuted progressively across different lines of investigation, some already closed and others still active, a context in which this new tax analysis is framed.
'Project King' and the €3.5 million not declared
To produce the document, the Tax Agency compiled information gathered since the investigation began, to which it added data obtained through international cooperation with countries such as Panama. Based on that material, the officials consider "established" that Villarejo received in 2012 more than €3.5 million through people in his circle and companies controlled by him, without those sums being declared.
The assignment in question was called Project King: an operation contracted by clients from Equatorial Guinea, with a total payment of €5.3 million, which had the alleged objective of "discrediting" one of President Teodoro Obiang's sons to favour another of his descendants. It was the first espionage operation discovered by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the one that initiated the Villarejo case.
According to the report, funds reached the commissioner's network by two routes. On one hand, the network received in 2012 nearly two million euros through "six transfers into five bank accounts" in Panama, Uruguay and the United Kingdom, opened in the name of "foreign companies controlled" by the former police officer. Those funds came from two companies linked to the Equatoguinean clients, with accounts in the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar, one of which "was fed with" money "of presumably illicit origin". On the other hand, the network received €1.65 million in seven cash deliveries.
Deliberate concealment and incriminating audio recordings
Treasury officials conclude that none of those income sources—neither by transfer nor in cash—was declared by Villarejo, his personal or family circle, or by the companies that make up his business network. The report describes an "operation oriented towards concealing the received capital", consisting of a "multiplicity of bank accounts located abroad, held by various foreign companies, most of them established with bearer shares in the names of front men".
The Tax Agency considers that the commissioner used that structure as a "shell instrument" to evade personal income tax. The fraud, the report states, "is clearly deduced from Villarejo's conduct, as he attempts to conceal at all times in the business sphere that he is the one who controls and who is behind the companies in Panama, Uruguay and the United Kingdom".
To support that conclusion, the document reproduces excerpts from audio recordings made by Villarejo himself, in which he states: "I've been doing bad things for 30 years and they haven't caught me yet"; "I've been doing bad things for 30 years and receiving payment and paying in all the countries of the world"; "If you do it well and structure it properly there's no problem"; and "In Panama, in Uruguay, we don't have problems".
Foreign property worth €2.9 million, including a castle in Montevideo
Beyond the tax fraud on the income, Treasury notes that the analysis has made it possible to "establish the existence of foreign property" registered in the name of foreign companies controlled by Villarejo, with an estimated combined value of €2.9 million.
The most notable is the Quinta de Juan Idiarte Borda castle, in Montevideo, valued at €700,000. The report describes it as an "imposing 19th-century construction of 15,248.43 square metres, declared a National Historical Monument in 1989". To that property is added another property also in Montevideo, of 400 square metres and valued at €400,000.
The list is completed by three apartments in the Dominican Republic: one valued at €450,000 and two others valued at €700,000 each, according to the report that the National Court's investigating court sent last week to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for assessment.
Source: Google News UY — Crime