Facts:

Del Valle was the owner of a law firm devoted to provide advice to foreign investors in the national real estate business, creating a system that allowed such investor to launder money. Such a concealment system could be used to hide unreported earnings and proceeds of crime.

The system used to facilitate such investments was the creation of holding companies in the country, which were facilitated by companies established in the US State of Delaware, whose legislation permit the concealment of the ultimate beneficiaries and owners in the deed and foundational titles. The clients investing in Spain through a Delaware company could ensure their anonymity since the inversion effectively carried out in Spain formally came from an American company, founding partner of the Spanish society.

Besides helping many clients to use this system to launder money, Del Valle also used the system for his own interest. He had shares in 194 foreign companies, being 143 from Delaware and 39 from different territories classified as tax heavens.

The main issue:

Since the procedure included 19 people, the argument raised were very diverse, but before the Provincial Court, as well as before the Supreme Court the argument raised were mainly about the evaluation of the evidence. Ultimately it was considered that the evidence collected in the investigation was not enough to condemn 14 of the accused.

Before the Supreme Court, Del Valle claimed that during the investigation his fundamental rights were violated, especially during telephone interceptions. The Court partially accepted it and declared null and void the evidence taken from the telephone interceptions.