The Treasury has identified suspicious payments worth 850,000 euros in the Montoro case.

Madrid / BarcelonaThe investigation into Cristóbal Montoro has reached the courts in Tarragona. A 249-page report from the Tax Agency, to which ARA has had access, details the operation through which gas companies attempted to conceal payments made to Equipo Económico, the firm founded by Montoro, who was Minister of Finance at the time, in exchange for the tax on economic activities. They established "three initial layers." First, the total agreed-upon amount was divided among different payers. Then, the amount corresponding to each company was broken down into "small sums" to make it more difficult to trace. Finally, the payment was made into at least "two different bank accounts." Furthermore, the payments were made with a deferral under the formal guise of a "success bonus" to distance them from their true origin. However, the payments "coincided temporally" with the progress of the legislative changes.

In total, the Spanish Tax Agency estimates that gas companies transferred €846,413.76 to the firm between 2011 and 2019 in installments, following the described procedure. This is the amount the Tax Agency has identified, but the total could be higher. In fact, investigators suspect it could reach €991,000, but this is money the Tax Agency has not yet located. One of the problems is that the information they have analyzed is incomplete, and therefore, the possibility of more transfers than those identified cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, the Tax Agency has detected a high volume of checks or transfers with an unknown origin or beneficiary, which significantly restricts the traceability analysis. In general, these were "complex and convoluted" money transfers that ended up under the control of partners at the firm, who then transferred the funds to other "unknown accounts" under "generic descriptions." According to the document, the gas companies that made the most payments were those belonging to the Association of Manufacturers of Industrial and Medical Gases (AFGIM), and among them, Praxair was the company that made the most payments. The report warns that this entire operation "could be replicated" with income from payers other than the gas companies. Why do they believe this? Because they have identified "recurring payments" with amounts "identical" to those paid by the gas companies. This leads to the conclusion that the identical amounts "would remunerate equivalent services," according to a "potential price list by type of product offered" by Equipo Económico.

For example, between 2012 and 2019, the investigated firm received more than 320 payments of €12,100, more than 40 payments of €36,300, and more than 50 payments of €18,150. In total, between 2008 and 2013, Equipo Económico had an income of €35 million, resulting from 2,100 transactions. This includes, among others, payments from the gas companies under investigation and recurring transfers of similar amounts from payers who appear in previous police reports.

They boasted of their decision-making position

The emails included in the report are very telling. The Tax Agency states that the gas companies were fully aware of how the operation was unfolding: "They were aware, they paid, and they boasted about it," the report states. Some examples: "The most direct route, as always, is to pay that economic team that has direct contact with the minister," said an email from December 2013. And the report highlights the importance of this declaration of intent: "It doesn't say hire, neither advise, neither collaborate, but satisfy the price to achieve their aims."

Or an exchange of emails from June 2014. After a "productive" meeting with Cristóbal Montoro—in the words of a gas company representative—the Secretary General of AFGIM explains that they will maintain "contacts" with the Ministry of Finance to clarify what "has already been made clear." This catches the attention of the researchers: "Not only their conviction in achieving the tax benefit, but also the imperative and dominant tone." After all, they believe that AFGIM was adopting the "position of decision-maker"

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Who were the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds received by Equipo Económico? The Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) points to its successor, Global Afteli, and its partners, former partners, and spouses, as well as a network of companies linked to them. However, since it has been unable to access many of the bank accounts of those involved, many of them abroad, it is requesting new court orders and letters rogatory from the judge to clarify the final destination of all that money. Montoro has obstructed the investigation and has not provided information on the accounts he owns or is a beneficiary of. Nevertheless, according to what investigators have been able to verify based on information held by the Tax Agency, he received a payment of €200,000 from Equipo Económico in 2007. He was still the company's chairman until 2008. However, from that date onward, the person who began receiving payments from the firm was Cristóbal Montoro's wife, Beatriz Blázquez, with a transfer of €3,200 in 2008 and another of €6,200 in 2010. His brother, Ricardo Montoro, received 41 transfers totaling €0.00. The speed at which Montoro paid off a mortgage between 2005 and 2014 leads investigators to believe he obtained money from an as-yet-unidentified source. To clarify the funds available to the former minister, his ex-wife, and his brother, the Tax Agency is requesting access to their accounts. The Montoro couple was not the only ones who allegedly operated in this way: some former partners of the firm are also suspected of having done so, receiving money through their wives after they were no longer partners.