The Prosecutor's Office requests sentences of seven years in prison for the Galician designer Kina Fernández, her husband, their two daughters, and a financial advisor, whom it attributes with a crime of asset concealment linked to the bankruptcy proceedings of the company Volvoreta. Additionally, it claims that they should jointly compensate with 2 million euros for not having satisfied the debts with their creditors, among them primarily the Tax Agency.
The trial against the five accused individuals and against Volvoreta itself, which has already been dissolved and whose bankruptcy was declared culpable in 2015 -- a decision confirmed in 2017 -- is being held at the Provincial Court of A Coruña between this Tuesday and Thursday, from October 13 to 15.
According to the indictment, the couple acted as administrators of the textile firm Volvoreta, which filed for bankruptcy in 2010. From that moment on, "a sequence of events occurs aimed at avoiding compliance" by the company and both spouses "with their obligations to creditors."
The Prosecutor's Office argues that, "at the very least," between January 2010 and February 2013, Kina Fernández and her husband "carried out all kinds of actions aimed at placing themselves in a state of insolvency and not complying with what was approved in the aforementioned resolution, thus pretending an insolvency of the company to avoid facing the agreed payments." To do this, they would have relied "on the advice" of a financial management officer of Volvoreta and with the involvement of their two daughters, who are also being prosecuted.
The accusatory narrative details that the couple used companies in the names of their daughters (Vidalbugaba SL, Kaefe Madrid SL, Galitex, Ruarel SL, and Rafflesia) in order to "divert the activity and billing" of Volvoreta, whose sales were included in the payment plan of the bankruptcy.
In this regard, Volvoreta would have stopped maintaining the lease of several commercial premises, so that the daughters' companies began to "operate those establishments without any record of payment for transfer or assignment." The accused, according to the Prosecutor's Office, delivered garments to their daughters' stores "without issuing an invoice, thus causing a disappearance of stock." Examples are cited of establishments located in Lugo, Murcia, Madrid, A Coruña, and Culleredo, where the "same mechanics" would have been applied.
"What is produced with this action is a deviation of all the activity of Volvoreta through the cession of stores to third entities and of the commercial activity," summarizes the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Disappearance of stock and diversion of assets
The viability plan included, in April 2011, an inventory of 20,658 garments valued at almost 2 million euros. However, when the liquidation phase was opened due to the breach of the agreement, in May 2014, only 1,603 garments were found, "without any record of their destination or amount received from their sale."
At the same time, the accusation claims that Kina Fernández and her husband diverted their real estate assets through the transfer of properties in favor of the company Galitex. Among the described operations is a house valued at 400,000 euros, several parking spaces, a storage room, and transferred shares, along with other maneuvers that the Prosecutor's Office considers fraudulent.
Since 2011, the couple would not have made "any payment" of the debts incurred with the Tax Agency, Social Security, and the rest of the creditors.
For all this, the Public Prosecutor's Office seeks seven years in prison for Kina Fernández and her partner, as well as for their two daughters and the financial manager, as necessary collaborators. For the company Volvoreta, a fine is also requested for its participation in the events.
In addition to the joint compensation of 2 million euros, the Prosecutor's Office requests that the acts it considers fraudulent be declared null and void and that they would have been executed through public deeds and transfers of shares. Alternatively, in case these operations cannot be annulled, it demands that the accused jointly compensate the creditors for the damage caused.