The instructor warns that “it is not absolutely ruled out” that there are more imputations
MADRID, 27 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The judge of the National High Court, María Tardón, has agreed to the file for Alcoa and its representatives, after the company and its former workers reached an agreement by which the unions renounced to continue exercising criminal and civil actions against the company and its directors , although the magistrate has opted for a provisional dismissal, instead of the definitive one requested by the company.
In a car dated July 21, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Investigating Court Number 3 provisionally files the investigations for Alcoa Inespal and its representatives Kai Rune Heggland, Álvaro Dorado Baselga, Ignacion León Moro and Christine Keener .
Likewise, the instructor takes note of the withdrawal of the Confederation of Professional Cadres (CCP), CCOO of Industry, Federation of Industry of UGT and Federation of Industry of USO with respect to these four people and Alcoa, although maintaining their claims as a private accusation for the rest of defendants.
The company had requested a definitive file, although the Public Prosecutor’s Office advocated a provisional and partial dismissal, while the State Attorney’s Office did not oppose closing the case with respect to these five natural and legal persons, given the “express resignation” of the unions, although he stressed that he does not fully share the story of the withdrawal letter.
Tardón explains in his resolution that he has opted for the provisional file, “taking into account precisely the procedural moment”, since “the investigation has not yet been concluded and it is not absolutely ruled out that the practice of new proceedings provides different elements of evidence that advise extend the accusation to some of the people with respect to whom there are not sufficient indications of guilt at this time”.
In addition, it underlines that, also in line with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, it is a partial file because it only affects Alcoa and its four representatives, continuing the judicial inquiries for the rest of those investigated.
The unions renounced to continue exercising the accusation against Alcoa after the transactional agreement reached on May 11 by the parties, which served so that their “labor claims” were “fully satisfied”, not “having anything to claim” to the company , as indicated in their letter.
The case began at the end of 2020, when CCP filed a complaint, to which the other unions later joined, for “the existence of various irregularities” in the sale of the aluminum factories in A Coruña and Avilés for an alleged breach of the agreements reached with the initial owner and with the workers’ representatives, as Tardón recalls.
The judge reports that on July 31, 2019, given the “difficult economic situation that the production centers” of A Coruña and Avilés were going through, Alcoa sold 100% of the share capital of both factories to the commercial companies ALU HOLDING AC and ALU HOLDING AVL, “created immediately beforehand by its owner, the Swiss company Blue Motion Technologies AG (Parter Capital Group)”.
The latter, in turn, “in a few months, and in breach of the terms of the sale agreement of July 31, 2019, sold 74.67% of the company shares to the Spanish company System Capital Management, which has currently passed to be called Iberian Green Aluminum Company, a company also incorporated immediately before the sale operation”.
“And, from the result of the investigations carried out to date, what can be deduced is that the actions that could constitute the crimes investigated to date derive from the succession of events that take place from this second and irregular transmission of the two factories, by the Swiss investment group Parter Capital, through its investee company Blue Motion Technologies, to System Capital Management”.
On the part of the representatives, administrators and managers of the different areas of management, Tardón points out, “a concatenated and repeated series of events that would have as their object the decapitalization and depatrimonialization of the entities and their initial assets, and their diversion and channeling, either towards their own personal assets, or to the corporate structures that have been configured ‘ad hoc’ to seize them”.
However, the magistrate points out that, from the investigations carried out, “what is evident is that, after long negotiations, in which the representatives of the workers of both factories also participated, and with the mediation of the Spanish Government, of the different candidates that participated in the acquisition process, a sale agreement was reached with the Swiss fund Parter, as it was the only buyer that met the requirements of maintaining the activity and the workforce”.
However, summarizes the instructor, “the facts under investigation in this case reveal in an indicative manner the alleged commission of crimes of aggravated fraud, punishable insolvency, misappropriation, against the safety of workers and belonging to a criminal group, as well as fraud in subsidies and the consequent laundering of illicit capital withdrawn without prejudice to further qualification”.
“More than what has been practiced so far, there have been no indications that allow us to attribute to Aloca herself or to any of her representatives, all of them initially investigated, and defendants in the complaint that gave rise to this procedure, the commission of the crimes initially charged”, Add.
