A Malta-based shell company was used by a Spanish embezzler arrested last week after five years on the run to help siphon off millions of public funds through a publicly-owned wastewater treatment company which operated in and around the city of Valencia.
José Ignacio Roca Samper had left Spain for France in 2008, but had disappeared from that country two years later. But financial transactions helped identify his whereabouts, and just last week, he was arrested by Interpol in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, and he now faces a jail term of up to 19 years.
While in France, Mr Roca Samper had set up companies in the “tax havens of Andorra and Malta,” helping him evade justice for five years, according to Magistrate Silvia Vivó, who has formally requested his extradition.
The fugitive is believed to be the brains behind the misappropriation – often described by Spanish media as the “looting” – of some €23 million through Emarsa, a publicly-owned wastewater treatment company which was liquidated in 2010.
A brief history of Emarsa
Emarsa – an acronym for a company whose full name translates to “metropolitan wastewater company” – was created by the city of Valencia and by 17 neighbouring municipalities to treat their wastewater, which would then either be reused for irrigation purposes, discharged at sea or help recharge the freshwater Albufera lagoon outside of the city, which is part of a natural park.
The company’s primary function was the management and operation of a sewage treatment plant in the Pinedo district of Valencia.
In the wake of an economic crisis which hit particularly hard in Valencia – where a construction boom had fuelled the economy until an equally dramatic crash occurred – the company was declared bankrupt in July 2010.
However, the liquidation process revealed a fiscal hole that could not be explained, prompting the launch of an inquiry which has led to the arraignment of over twenty people, including politicians affiliated with the People’s Party.
These include the company’s president, Enrique Ángel Crespo Calatrava, who had served as the mayor of the Valencian suburb of Manises and a vice-president of the administration of the Valencian province. Criminal proceedings against Mr Crespo are ongoing: he is denying his involvement in any fraudulent plot.
On the other hand, prosecutors believe that he and many others conspired to embezzle millions of euros in public funds by falsely inflating the cost of wastewater treatment. Emarsa managers billed huge sums for fictitious services which were apparently embezzled or spent on luxury goods and services. These included “meetings” at four-star hotels which required the services of Romanian “interpreters,” who were actually prostitutes.
The Malta connection
As it happens, Mr Roca Samper disappeared from France in September 2010, as Emarsa’s bankruptcy uncovered the fraudulent practices that had taken place.
He was not part of Emarsa, but had been the founder and director of several companies which billed the Pinedo sewage treatment plant for fictitious services. Evidence presented in court indicates that Mr Roca Samper’s participation was “essential and necessary for the final fraud to be achieved.
An inquiring judge named Mr Roca Samper as an “imputado” – which in the Spanish legal system means that a criminal offence had been attributed to him, although he had not been formally charged – on March 2011. An international arrest warrant was issued in January 2012.
Mr Roca Samper is known to have established a number of companies during his two-year stay in France, including real estate company Lot Monopoly and a Panama-registered but Andorra-based company.
But he also established Malta-based Walnut Grove Ltd, whose registered address is in Melita Street, Valletta.
He is listed as the sole director, legal representative and company secretary of Walnut Grove Ltd, and is also effectively its sole owner, save for a single share owned by Claris Capital Ltd.
Claris itself, according to its website, “is a forward-looking trust company delivering and managing effective trust and corporate structures for wealthy individuals and families and their corporate entities worldwide.”
According to evidence unearthed during investigations, the revenue of the companies that fraudulently billed Emarsa was being used by Lot Monopoly to acquire real estate in the town of Salviac, in the Lot Department of France. Revenue from the eventual sale of this property, in turn, was being transferred to Walnut Grove.
But Walnut Grove’s own capital was then transferred elsewhere, including a number of Chinese nationals in an apparent money laundering operation. In Spain, this practice has drawn comparisons to another entrepreneur facing money laundering charges – Chinese businessman Gao Ping, who apparently used a similar method to launder funds.
Fiscal transactions suggested that following his disappearance, Mr Roca Samper was leading his operations through Romania, with the aid of his partner María Águila Aladrén Lejarraga.
Ms Aladrén was arrested in July 2012 after returning to Spain from Romania, and she is the first person to be convicted over the case, receiving a 19-month jail term in 2013.
Ms Aladrén had refused to answer questions about Mr Roca Samper’s whereabouts, but in the end, this did not stop Interpol from arresting him in Moldova, which borders Romania and whose population is largely Romanian-speaking.