Alberto González Amador, an entrepreneur who admitted to committing two tax offenses totaling 350,000 euros in his corporate tax returns for 2020 and 2021, was willing to make amends for his wrongdoing by paying the defrauded amount plus late payment interest (4.025% over two years). With a payment exceeding 380,000 euros, he aimed to reduce the corresponding penalty (one to five years for each tax offense) by one or two degrees to avoid going to jail. González Amador is the current partner of the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who has defended him from the beginning, accusing the State powers of “harassing” an individual, and accusing the Tax Office of conducting a wild and excessive inspection.
The Chief of Staff of Ayuso, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, disclosed in mid-March that González Amador was willing to admit his offenses when he reported that the prosecutor had offered to negotiate such a settlement. But Ayuso’s boyfriend had admitted to various deceptions to the Tax Office long before. Tax inspectors began an investigation on May 12, 2022, after suspecting a 2020 Corporate Tax return that set a much lower tax amount compared to the previous year with six times higher income. Between May 2022 and January 2024, González Amador admitted in various stages to the Tax Office the falseness of invoices totaling 600,000 euros and nearly one million euros, which he used to deduct expenses.
Despite these precedents, Ayuso’s partner filed a lawsuit against the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Madrid on Wednesday, accusing them of violating confidentiality. This institution released a statement revealing that it was González Amador himself who, through his lawyer, had offered an agreement to avoid jail time by “making full reparation [for a tax fraud of 350,000 euros in two Corporate Tax returns], paying the full tax and late payment interest.” The Criminal Code establishes that for such settlements, not only the defrauded amount and late payment interest must be paid, but also a fine “between one and six times” that amount, which could demand up to two million euros from González Amador to accept a deal that significantly reduces the prison sentence.
González Amador’s lawyer explains in the lawsuit that after confirming that the Tax Office had sent a “crime-related settlement” to the Prosecutor’s Office on January 16, 2024, he sent an email to the public prosecutor on February 2 to expedite the reparation with a minimum of 380,000 euros and a maximum of two million, “and as soon as possible in the manner provided by criminal legislation.” The lawyer clarifies that he made these arrangements quickly due to the “special circumstances affecting Alberto González Amador due to the romantic relationship he has” with the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The lawyer argues that this romantic relationship has “a distorting effect on procedural guarantees, and ultimately led to the facts” he denounced in the lawsuit.
González Amador does not deny his tax fraud in the lawsuit, but tries to explain through his lawyer that he offered to admit the offenses, which he had already acknowledged to the tax authorities earlier, to prevent the news of Ayuso’s boyfriend committing tax fraud from becoming public because that would have “a distorting effect on procedural guarantees.” However, the information, which was reported by eldiario.es when the lawsuit from the Prosecutor’s Office had been in the courts of Plaza de Castilla for a month, came out on March 12, more than a month after González Amador admitted to two tax fraud offenses. Ayuso’s boyfriend insists in the lawsuit that none of his illegal tax behavior would have been exposed if it wasn’t for his relationship with the President of the Community of Madrid. He accuses the Prosecutor’s Office of breaching the necessary confidentiality in their negotiations. In the lawsuit, Ayuso’s partner avoids mentioning the leak of an email that the prosecutor in the case sent to González Amador’s lawyer and that was subsequently disclosed by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Ayuso’s Chief of Staff, to later falsely accuse the Prosecutor’s Office of retracting the settlement offer.
