The person investigated by the National Court, Víctor Rubén Domenech, who is currently the main owner of the Alu Ibérica factory in Avilés (formerly Alcoa), decided to organize his business with an exclusive scrap supplier: the Luxembourg company Traxys Group. This company has filed a demand in a commercial court, precisely in the city of Luxembourg, for damages. He demands that the alumina company (now in bankruptcy) pay him 30 million euros (the figure that is in the lawsuit is 34 million dollars).
The commercial entity Grupo Industrial Riesgo, headed by Domenech (now under criminal investigation for fraudulent decapitalization of the company) presented its agreement with Traxys in July 2020 (shortly after acquiring the majority shareholding of the alumin company) saying that had “selected” to the Luxembourg company “to strengthen its strategy and commercial structure & rdquor ;. And he added that “With the incorporation of Traxys Group in the commercial and sales area, the Alu Ibérica plants in La Coruña and Avilés will be able to significantly maximize their production and sales capacities, be more efficient and favor the development of the international market.”
In short, what Traxys undertook was to provide Alu Ibérica with scrap that was melted (when something was melted) in the San Balandrán furnaces to later distribute aluminum billets. This had to be done exclusively. The Central European company considers that the latter was not carried out during the direct management of its owner (withdrawn from the executive power in August 2021) and that is why he filed the lawsuit that was first received by Ramón Juega, the judicial administrator appointed by the titular magistrate of the Central Court of Instruction Number 3 of the National High Court (María Tardón) and now the bankruptcy administrators (Miguel’s offices in Oviedo) have to deal with it. Gómez Gordillo and GdP Legal) who are in charge of managing the factory and looking for possible investors only since last December 13.
Traxys’ claim against Alu Ibérica has two parts: the first demands that the Luxembourg judge order the execution of the agreement signed by Domenech and the company. This is currently not possible because the owner left his factory without activity on July 8, when Domenech’s operations manager in Avilés ordered the last melting furnace to be turned off. Since then, the activity of the factory came to nothing. That is why Juega ordered a paid leave for the entire workforce (because there was nothing to do because there were no reserves and debts with suppliers rose as high as a mountain) which later became an ERTE.
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Since the reactivation is not possible, Traxys claims in a subsidiary manner the payment of 34 million dollars. The claim was stopped because Juega had requested the financial report from Traxys to justify the claim filed, that is, the basis of the claim. That was not obtained by Juega and, as far as this newspaper has learned, neither were the bankruptcy administrators. The step they have to take is the hiring of a Luxembourg law firm to defend Alu Ibérica. And that is where the bankruptcy administrators are, who in a few days have a meeting by videoconference with the lawyers of the plaintiff company.
The damage that this claim entails –if it is finally carried out– would leave the alumina company unarmed. And this is so because the general debt of Alu Ibérica already exceeds 30 million. Ramón Juega had managed to audit the accounts when he presented the start-up of a bankruptcy, that is, since he had not found “a real accounting & rdquor; (in the words of the auditors) had to compose it from the beginning. The subsequent declaration of bankruptcy has caused new debts to surface: 600,000 euros per month in current spending and between 8 and 9 million that Alu Ibérica has to reserve to pay compensation to the workers it is going to fire.
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