Agents of the National Police arrested seven people in Valladolid between May 25 and 26 for making 32 fraudulent contracts to collect public benefits and regularize foreigners during the last five years. Specifically, they are accused of crimes against the Public Treasury and Social Security, against the rights of foreign citizens and false documents.
As a result of the collaboration with the General Treasury of Social Security and Labor and Social Security Inspection of Valladolid, within the framework of the fight against Social Security fraud and irregular employment, a police operation was carried out that has lasted 14 months. In March 2021, the investigation focuses on V. J. M. A., a lawyer and advisor, based in Valladolid, who had the infrastructure of a sole proprietorship with his own name that allowed him to hire workers apparently legally.
The lawyer, who had an office in the capital within the Neighborhood Association of a neighborhood in the city, managed to hire 32 people, in a period of five years, most of them supported by cleaning portals community or his own office, although as a result of the investigation it has become known that external companies were available for these tasks.
During the investigation, according to the note from the National Police Corps collected by Ical, “rocambolesque” contracts were found to perform disparate functions such as preparing Christmas cards after Christmas or hiring a person to exclusively clean their private vehicle, lacking the employee of driver’s license, as well as the hiring of a person to clean his office, who did not go to work or did not perform his duties, so he hired a second person to carry out those same functions while maintaining the Security registration Social of the first, «since he felt sorry to fire her».
Most of the registrations processed in the Social Security were for a single day, and the beneficiaries of these fraudulent procedures had voluntarily left their previous job, so they needed to register to be able to access the collection of public benefits. Cases were also detected in which the interest in generating this fraudulent employment relationship was rooted in the need to have an employment contract that guaranteed livelihoods to regularize the administrative situation of the interested parties or family members.
The agents also located multiple cash deposits in the bank accounts of the principal under investigation, appearing as cash deposits in the name of one of his alleged ‘workers’ for the benefit of V. J. M. A. and then that transfer would be reimbursed to the ‘worker’ appearing as a monthly payroll . In other words, the employee paid the employer the amount of his own payroll in cash so that he would later return it via bank transfer, deducting his corresponding commission. Of the 32 workers who were registered with Social Security, 28 were canceled ex officio and six of the “workers” were located and arrested.
The detainees – three men and four women, between 34 and 67 years of age, of whom only two had a record for other criminal acts – were released after giving a statement pending trial and the proceedings were referred to the Court of Instruction number Five of Valladolid. The arrests were carried out by agents of the Unit Against Illegal Immigration Networks and False Documents (UCRIF) of the Immigration and Borders Provincial Brigade of the Valladolid Provincial Police Station.
