2024-08-31 19:58:19
Learn about the penalties for the crime of illegal fuel marketing, of which Alquiles Alvarez is accused by the Noboa Government.
The Copedesa marketing company, whose shareholder is the mayor of Guayaquil, Aquiles Alvarez, is facing a complaint from the Public Prosecutor’s Office for alleged irregular sale of subsidized fuels. The complainant is the director of the Agency for Regulation and Control of Energy (Arcernnr), Franklin Erreyes Tocto, and includes Antonio Alvarez, president of Barcelona and brother of the mayor, as well as nine other people.
According to the document, there is documentary evidence, recordings and testimonies that would reveal the existence of an organized network of illegal fuel trade. But what does the scheme consist of, according to the Government? We explain it below:
Marketing company sells fuels irregularly to gas station
The scheme, according to Arcennr, consists of four marketing companies, including, supposedly, Copedesa, the company of the Mayor of Guayaquil, delivering fuel at subsidized prices to Fuelcorp gas stations to which it is not authorized to deliver.
According to Arcernnr, Copedesa would have irregularly delivered 745,718 gallons of fuel to Fuelcorp, in 2023 alone. Fuelcorp, according to the complaint, has two administrative offices and a gas station called Estación San Francisco, located in the Milagro canton (Guayas).
Gas station sells fuel irregularly
Fuelcorp’s service stations then apparently sold these subsidized fuels to four companies (some of which Arcernnr presumes to be marketers) that went to load vehicles without license plates. In addition, this gas station would have sold fuel to 8,019 cars that have only one owner, who apparently is a Fuelcorp employee. One of those 8,019 vehicles reported an irregular consumption of 117,000 gallons of gasoline and, in addition, 3,000 gallons of diesel, despite the fact that the car runs on gasoline.
These figures are striking because it is a car with a 1,400 cubic centimeter engine, with a performance of 60 kilometers per gallon. That is, in order to be able to use that volume, that car would have had to be charged dozens of times a day and, in addition, have traveled the entire road network of Ecuador about 4 times in a year. It is striking that one of the shareholders of Fuelcorp, Cesar Emilio B., was manager of Aquiles Alvarez’s company, in 2021; that is, of Copedesa.
In his radio program on July 8, 2024, President Daniel Noboa had already anticipated, without mentioning names, that there were companies that benefited with millions of dollars through the irregular sale of subsidized fuels, such as diesel and, until recently, gasoline. He even described the scheme that is now included in the complaint filed by the government agency Arcernnr against several companies, including that of Aquiles Alvarez.
In addition, in the same radio link, Noboa also referred to the exchange of words he had with the Mayor of Guayaquil, who complained about the delay of the Central Government in the issuance of sovereign guarantees for the execution of works. Without mentioning Alvarez directly, President Noboa said:
«Yes, the sovereign guarantee will be given, but the other one will continue to make a mess. Yes, it will be given, but he will continue to insult everyone. But we will monitor every meter,” Noboa commented.
Then Aquiles Alvarez responded to the head of state on July 8, 2024 to supervise his ministers instead of his municipal works. And on July 12, 2023, through a video published on his X network, the mayor of Guayaquil described as “invention» to the complaint for illegal marketing of fuels filed against him by Arcernnr in the Prosecutor’s Office. He added that it is filed “just when Guayaquil is demanding its rights”
Just when Guayaquil is demanding its rights, just when security is getting worse and its plans are not yielding results, the farce appears, the distracting montage without any basis.
Guayaquil will not be your new duck, here there is conviction, serenity, courage and truth, for a while. pic.twitter.com/Rk6ciZRZ1f
— Aquiles Alvarez Henriques (@aquilesalvarez) July 12, 2024
“It is a distracting montage, without support, based on a confusing mix of elements to generate deception, to generate scandal (…). The truth will prevail,” added Alvarez, pointing out that his administration is a threat to the “electoral vision” of the Central Government.
What is the penalty for illegal fuel marketing?
Article 264 of the Comprehensive Criminal Code establishes as a crime the illegal storage, transportation, packaging, marketing or distribution of products derived from hydrocarbons, liquefied petroleum gas or biofuels, or the diversion of fuels to a different segment. The person who commits this crime will be punished with imprisonment according to the following scale:
Minimum scale, from two to six months.
Medium scale, from six months to one year.
High Scale, one to three years.
Large scale, three to five years.
In addition, the company that participates in this crime will be subject to the sanction of temporary closure, according to the same article 264 of the Comprehensive Criminal Code.
By: PRIMICIAS