A business and legal war in State Ports is about to leave a shocking image: Vicente Boluda, the largest shipping company in Spain and the country’s 35th fortune, according to Forbes, is facing trial for false accusation. A company from Boluda filed a complaint in 2020 against the former Ports leadership, for, it said, harming a tugboat company of its own in Las Palmas. Once it was filed, one of those named, the State’s attorney in Ports José Antonio Morillo-Velarde, filed a personal complaint against Boluda for false accusation.
It is a path that rarely succeeds, but a judge from Las Palmas says that there are indications that the shipowner abused the judicial system and has ordered the procedure to end, the step prior to opening an oral trial. There is a lack of resources and the prosecutor’s office has requested the archive, but rarely has economic power faced such high-ranking public officials in court. This time it is personal, and with ramifications in the world of law.
In June 2020, Vicente Boluda decided to play hard. One of his companies, Tugboats and Barges of Las Palmas (Repaba), he complained against the leadership of State Ports of the Rajoy Government. He accused them of prevarication, embezzlement and infidelity in the custody of public documents. According to the letter, “with the purpose of facilitating greater competition in some port services”, these “have maneuvered or manipulated the processing of some administrative files”, so that the entity Odiel Towage, a subsidiary, could enter the tugboat service in Las Palmas. from the German giant Fairplay, but it did so “under unfair and discriminatory conditions.”
The complaint was against José Llorca, former president of Puertos del Estado as a visible face, but also against other people from the leadership of the entity, dependent on Transport. Among others, against José Antonio Morillo-Velarde del Peso, State lawyer since 1982 and head of the Ports legal office.
Boluda was then represented by José Antonio Choclán, the all-star penalty man, who has defended Imanol Arias, Cristiano Ronaldo and Víctor de Aldama. In his writing, Choclán maintained that the Port authorities “had twisted the law so much to favor the entry of a German competitor that they achieved it in the final, but at the cost of free competition.”
The complaint had a brief history. It was filed in Las Palmas in March 2021, less than a year after being presented. And there it was Morillo-Velarde del Peso, the State lawyer appointed by Boluda, who began his particular counterattack. First, he took Choclán to the Madrid Bar Association for bad faith: “I am the recipient and victim of a complaint that, like few others, deserves the adjective “Catalan”: false, lacking legal basis and with a purely intimidating purpose. “, argument. It was filed after passing to the Las Palmas Bar Association.
But then the matter had already become a personal battle, almost between legal egos. After the complaint to the bar association, Morillo aimed higher. In his personal capacity, not on behalf of Puertos, he filed a complaint against Boluda: “From the joint assessment of the complaint filed by Mr. Boluda, the manifest falsity of the alleged facts and his reckless disregard for the truth emerge, which reveals “In addition, the spurious spirit that guided the conduct of the defendant.”
The crime of false reporting is very difficult to succeed, and even more so in the case of a complaint, that of Boluda, which was admitted for processing and investigated before being filed. But Judge Luz Calvé, of the Investigative Court 8 of Las Palmas, has seen signs of a crime. On December 17, he issued an order in which he reaffirmed his decision to issue a transformation order, the step that entails ending the investigation and asking the accused to file charges before trial.
The judge rejects the appeals of the defense and the prosecution and limits herself to stating: “Once the pertinent investigative procedures have been carried out, we understand that if there are indications of the possible existence of a crime of false reporting attributable to the defendant, therefore, it is appropriate continue with the processing of the case.”
Boluda’s defense will appeal to the Provincial Court and assumes that the case will fall there. The prosecution supports the shipowner and has requested that the complaint be filed. But, for now, Morillo-Velarde del Peso is scoring another notch on the butt.
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