Spanish investigators have traced millions of euros from a major hydrocarbon fraud through a maze of companies and crypto accounts. The case now stretches from Portugal and Ireland to China, Italy, and Germany.
Seventy-eight million euros have turned up in a cross-border fraud probe that now reaches from Portugal to China. The Guardia Civil’s Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) has mapped out a tangled web of suspicious money transfers. Investigators say Víctor de Aldama and Claudio Rivas ran the operation. Spain’s Audiencia Nacional is looking into how they moved illegal profits from a hydrocarbon scam into dozens of foreign accounts and crypto wallets.
The UCO has focused on 14 companies they believe are just fronts. Portugal has become a main hub. In its latest report to Judge Santiago Pedraz, the UCO says 78.3 million euros landed in Portuguese company accounts. Of that, 56.5 million has already been tracked down with help from Portuguese authorities. But the search is not over. The UCO wants access to 70 more accounts in Portugal to find out what happened to money that may have been turned into cryptocurrency or sent back to Spain.
UCO materials indicate that 8.8 million euros from these transfers went to three companies linked to Aldama, highlighting the use of shell structures for fund distribution.
The way the money was moved is both bold and complicated. The UCO describes two setups: one to pull off the hydrocarbon fraud, and another to clean the profits. At the center is Villafuel, a company tied to buying a luxury villa in La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz. Reports say the villa was for former Socialist minister José Luis Ábalos. The network also includes other firms inside Spain’s hydrocarbon sector.
Between 2022 and 2024, the suspected fraud may have topped 182.5 million euros. The UCO says some of this money went through regular banks, but some ended up in crypto exchanges. One transfer sent 213,663 euros in 13 payments to an Irish company that works in crypto markets. Investigators think this company is the parent of an exchange platform used by the suspects. The Guardia Civil has asked for a European order to get full details on these transfers and who was behind them.
The money trail goes beyond Europe. The UCO found a 500,000 euro transfer to a company in Hong Kong. This raises suspicions that the money was sent through several countries to hide where it came from. Other transfers have been traced to companies in Italy and Germany. This has made the investigation even more complex and shows how far the alleged scheme reached.
According to reports from Cadena SER and elDiario.es, the fraud scheme used Villafuel as a fuel market operator and a network of seven intermediary companies to create fictitious supply chains and money flows. This structure is central to the case and explains its deep ties to the hydrocarbon sector.
The picture that emerges is of a criminal group using the gaps in international finance and the secrecy of crypto. The UCO is following the money across borders, through shell companies, and into digital assets. The scale and complexity of the case show how organized financial crime is changing. As the investigation goes on, Spanish authorities will have to decide how to handle future cross-border frauds like this—and whether international teamwork can keep up with criminals who use new tricks to dodge the law.
