The Judge of the National Court María Tardón will take statements today from three detainees (two in Madrid and one in Malaga) in the framework of the operation of the National Police for the alleged fraudulent de-patrimonialization of the aluminum production plants of Alu Ibérica. All of them will testify for alleged crimes of aggravated fraud, punishable insolvency, misappropriation, against the rights of workers and criminal association.
The arrests have occurred after a hundred agents of the National Police have searched this Thursday the facilities of thee Alu Ibérica in A Coruña and Avilés, as well as several offices in Madrid, Malaga and Castellón. The intervention has also included eleven home searches, and all this for the complaint filed by the Confederation of Staff and Professionals (CCP) against Alcoa for alleged irregularities in the sale of the plants that could constitute an uprising of assets and fraud.
Members of the Economic and Fiscal Crimes Unit (UDEF) of the National Police and Labor Inspection entered the Alu Ibérica factory on Thursday morning to make a record framed in the investigation opened for the sale of Alcoa factories in A Coruña and Avilés. The National Court investigates the alleged de-ownership of the company after the sale of Alcoa, first to Grupo Parter and then Grupo Riesgo, current owners.
The recently fired president of the Works Council, Juan Carlos López Corbacho, has acknowledged in statements to Radio Coruña Cadena SER that this record was foreseeable. Corbacho hopes that justice will clarify the “scam” that in his opinion has been the whole process of buying and selling the aluminum factory. “I hope that soon we will have other actions and that it is the end of that scam, of that tremendous deception to which we have been subjected, and what is the beginning of that industrial exit for the aluminum plant here in A Coruña and that of that industrial output and guarantee jobs, ”he pointed out.
The registrations, which started shortly before 9 a.m., It has been carried out at the same time in other 11 points of the Spanish geography, also in the Avilés factory and private homes and law firms in Madrid, Malaga and Castellón. Corbacho considers that these records have been prompted by the latest movements made by Grupo Riesgo: The dismissal of several workers (Corbacho himself among them) and the sentence to property for violation of trade union freedoms.
Beyond this judicial situation and the investigations that are carried out, Juan Carlos Corbacho considers that administrations should work to guarantee a future job for workers. Job guarantees before the end of the commitment made by the companies themselves to guarantee jobs this summer.
The investigation, directed by the Central Court of Instruction number 3 of the National Court and coordinated by the Special Prosecutor Against Corruption and Organized Crime, “seeks to obtain evidence in order to clarify the facts and safeguard the rights of all those who may be harmed by such actions“.
In 2019, Alcoa sold these facilities to the Swiss investment fund Parter Capital, but Parter Capital soon sold them to Grupo Industrial Riesgo under the name Alu Ibérica, without previously informing the Ministry of Industry or the regional governments and the representation of the staff, who accuse the new owner of lacking a solvent industrial project.
More than 100 police officers from different specialties of the central and territorial organization of the General Directorate of the Police participate in the operation, as well as members of the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate.
Until now, none of the companies involved in this judicial process and in the UDEF records has expressed its position regarding them.
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