Everyone knows David Herrera Lobato. A burly man of about 50 years old who lives with his mother and who currently has 18 companies in Arahal, a Sevillian municipality of 20,000 residents, where the majority live in white one- and two-story houses, about 40 minutes by car from the Andalusian capital. Here, Herrera has had up to 30 companies in recent years. All types. Photovoltaic panels, cleaning, retail. However, Herrera is known above all for running an agency:
—David Herrera? The one from the management office?
This is the first response one receives when asking about him on these cobbled streets. Herrera has just been denounced by the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office for tax fraud and document falsification. His name appears in the same document as that of Alberto González, the partner of President Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Supposedly and according to an inspection by the Treasury, Herrera would have prepared false invoices with one of the companies belonging to the partner of the leader of the Madrid PP for an amount of 117,200 euros. Herrera, at the door of his house and having just woken up from a nap, denies it:
–I did some work with the Quirón hospital in Seville.
—Did you know Alberto González, Ayuso’s partner?
— No.
What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
He says his works are real. That everything started from an “average worker” at a Quirón Hospital in Seville, that he was billed and that they paid him for it. “Me for Maxwell [la empresa de la pareja de Ayuso] I did cleaning, surveillance and technical advice services. We work in a Quirón Hospital in Seville. We had at least 30 employees. “I have all the invoices, but I am not going to show anything.” He claims that it was a neighbor from Arahal who contacted “a man from Maxwell” and told him: “Find me a service company.” He does not remember this person’s name precisely. “A certain Fran, an average hospital employee,” without further details. “I spoke to him on the phone and billed him. I don’t remember anymore. “It was years ago.”
— But the Prosecutor’s Office says that their invoices are false.
-Why [a la pareja de Ayuso] They must have been caught in some plot and the Treasury technician will have said that they are false.
And he insists: “How am I going to know a guy from Madrid? How am I going to know Alberto? My company has been blown up because a tax inspector has thrown invoices back, but this is a very normal thing to do. “I will defend myself in the Prosecutor’s Office.” Herrera is not the only resident of the town who appears in the complaint. The prosecutor’s office has put its magnifying glass on two other brothers, aged 34 and 44. José Miguel Carrillo and Agustín Carrillo. Of the five men who appear in the complaint, three reside in Arahal and two in Madrid. All are accused of tax fraud and document falsification.
One of Arahal’s brothers says that he does not know the president’s partner either, and that he does not know how his name could have appeared in the news and in the complaint. “I am not a terrorist or any politician. I’m going to meet that man. What I needed. She thought she was single.” She defers to her attorney for any matter related to the complaint. The reality is that the brothers have known Herrera since they were little. They are neighbours. They live almost door to door in Arahal. One of the brothers now works in a bakery and the other is a waiter. However, according to the Commercial Registry and the complaint from the Prosecutor’s Office, the strange connection with Ayuso’s partner exists.
The manager Herrera Lobato now has 18 companies. Of these, Púrpura Star SL is dedicated to the manufacture, advice and installation of photovoltaic products and panels. It was created on October 7, 2020. Ayuso’s partner made four allegedly false invoices to Púrpura Star SL through one of their companies for an amount of 12,800 euros each, which adds up to 51,200 euros. Two invoices are dated February 28, 2021 and two others are dated July 1, 2021, according to the Prosecutor’s Office complaint.
That same year, Ayuso’s partner would have falsely deducted from the company Bianconera de Servicios Profesionales SL, also from Herrera, invoices for an amount totaling 66,000 euros and ranging from March 15 to October 1. Bianconera de Servicios Profesionales was established on January 10, 2018. According to the Commercial Registry, this company is dedicated to “cleaning activities”, “retail trade in non-specialized establishments” and “tax consultancy and accounting activities”. The Prosecutor’s Office suspects that 117,200 euros would have been falsely invoiced with the two companies of this Arahal resident.
In the case of the Carrillo brothers, the connection would be the following. José Miguel created the company Bianconera Spa Sociedad Limitada on June 16, 2021. The company, with a name almost identical to another company owned by manager Herrera—Bianconera de Servicios Profesionales—is dedicated to very diverse activities. According to the Commercial Registry: support for companies, newspaper printing, manufacturing industries, trade in various products, cleaning activities and provision of Human Resources. Ayuso’s partner invoiced with this company 20 days after it was created. The amount was 10,500 euros.
Agustín, the other brother, currently has seven companies. And the president’s boyfriend would have improperly deducted 52,695 euros from three of them. He assures that he has not received a penny of anything. That it was his neighbor, the manager Herrera, who created these companies. He doesn’t know how this could have happened. He also doesn’t know Ayuso’s partner at all. Agustín was also on the PP lists to the town, where he has governed Izquierda Unida for years. A municipal worker with more than 30 years at the City Council assures that manager Herrera has also offered the cleaning services of his company to the municipality, but that they are small bills. “What has happened is very strange. Who would have thought? How did you come to know Ayuso’s partner? If it were from Seville, then yes, but from Madrid, but it is also a different profile. “No one can explain this relationship.”
José María Mollinedo, spokesperson for the Treasury Technicians Union, said by phone that this case had very short legs from the beginning, and hence the speed of the prosecutor’s complaint. “It’s very easy to verify false billing,” he says. “When someone invents expenses, there is a company that has to pay taxes and VAT on those operations. If you don’t enter them, it’s easy to drag the thread. That is why this framework is not very complex.”
Here, in Arahal, the neighbors have learned about the case from the press. The father of the accused brothers, a man who was a bricklayer in the town and who built the two-story house where he lives with his wife and his children, sighs at the door when asked about his boys. Maybe it all came from friendships:
–There are always smart ones. You have to be careful.
here to our daily newsletter about Madrid.
to continue reading
_