The former ambassador of Spain in Venezuela Raúl Morodo accepted this Monday a sentence of 10 months in prison for a crime against the public treasury for the concealment of profits of almost 4.5 million euros that his son Alejo obtained in business with the Venezuelan state oil company. Petróleos de Venezuela Sociedad Anónima (Pdvsa) between 2013 and 2014.
At the hearing, which began in the Spanish National Court, Alejo Morodo accepted, for his part, a sentence of two years in prison for two tax crimes, the same as his father, by virtue of an agreement in accordance with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office and the accusation carried out by the Manos Médicas collective.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested three and a half years in prison for Raúl Morodo and eight and a half years for his son, but finally reduced their request by virtue of said agreement, by applying the mitigating circumstances of confession of the facts and reparation for the damage, having entered both a total of 1,410,000 euros of debt contracted with the Spanish Treasury.
The trial will continue regarding Alejo Morodo’s wife, Ana Catarina Varandas, for whom the State Attorney’s Office withdrew the accusation but faces a request for eight and a half years in prison by the Prosecutor’s Office and is also still accused by the self-proclaimed union. Clean Hands, a group with a long history of corruption complaints, most of them archived.
Accusation
Raúl Morodo was accused of alleged tax fraud of his son Alejo’s earnings in his business with the oil company, through alleged false legal advice contracts signed with the Venezuelan company between 2012 and 2015, when his father was no longer in charge of the embassy. .
The money was allegedly laundered through a complex web of companies created by the son and other investigated people, including the former ambassador’s daughter-in-law and two Venezuelan associates.
One of them, Juan Carlos Márquez, was found hanged at his home in Madrid, in what was considered a suicide, shortly after testifying at the National Court.
Fiscal years
The Prosecutor’s Office, which only charges charges for the years 2013 and 2014 as the previous ones were statute-barred, maintains that Raúl Morodo also defrauded the profits he received from the assets of two of those companies.
The origin of the funds that Alejo Morodo allegedly hid from the Treasury lies in the contractual relationship that he contracted with PDVSA until 2014, using the relationships that his father established with “senior officials” of Venezuela during his time as ambassador.
Madrid / EFE
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