The judge opens a new piece in the 'Morodo case' and brings the former ambassador closer to the bench for crimes of tax fraud

At the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, it focuses on the fiscal years of 2013, 2014 and 2017

MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Judge Alejandro Abascal opens a new separate piece in the so-called 'Morodo case' and brings the former ambassador of Spain to Venezuela Raúl Morodo and his family circle closer to the bench for alleged crimes of tax fraud.

In a car, to which Europa Press has had access, the instructor of the National Court agrees to create a separate piece for the investigation of tax fraud corresponding to the years of 2013, 2014 and 2017 for defrauded quotas of more than 120,000 euros. The piece in question is directed against former ambassador Raúl Morodo, his son Alejo Morodo and his daughter-in-law Ana Catarina Varandas and against the companies 'Aequitas Abogados y Consultores Asociados SL', 'Furnival Barrister Corp' and 'Morodo Abogados y Asociados SL'.

The person in charge of the Central Court of Instruction Number 1 acts at the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, who requested the formation of a separate piece for Morodo and his family circle to be able to continue with the procedures of the abbreviated procedure, which leaves the one who was ambassador during the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero closer to the defendant's bench in an eventual trial.

Judge Abascal adopts this decision for the sake of "procedural expediting" and to "avoid undue delay." With this, it intends to advance the prosecution, separately, of some criminal acts that --after being investigated within some previous proceedings-- "should not wait or be delayed until the investigation in relation to other criminal acts or other persons who may be the subject of separate inquiry".

In this specific case, the examining magistrate emphasizes that it is evident that the investigation must be differentiated into two blocks: "the first, which the Public Prosecutor identifies as the 'Morodo case'; and the other, as the 'Venezolanos case', which although maintain initial connection, are perfectly differentiated and endowed with their own elements that allow and advise their separate prosecution; not only because the facts and the people investigated in each one of them are different, but also because of the different procedural state in which they are." .

The investigation that is being followed in the National Court has its origin in the complaint that the Prosecutor's Office filed in January 2019 for alleged crimes of money laundering and crimes against the Public Treasury against Raúl Morodo, his son and other natural and legal persons linked to both of them. In that letter, the Venezuelans Carlos Adolfo Prada Gómez and Juan Carlos Márquez Cabrera (who died during the investigation) were also pointed out, and against other natural and legal persons from his family and business environment.

The initial investigations focused on the more than 4.5 million euros that Morodo and his closest circle would have received between 2011 and 2015 from the public company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) "lacking real justification and commercial logic."