Limits to capital flight in the midst of Francoism: Private business and political benevolence in the Rivara Case (1957-1959)

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to delimiting the scope of tax fraud in Spain, manifested in capital flight, just on the eve of the full insertion of the Franco dictatorship in the main Western economic organizations. The central source of the investigation is the judicial summary of the so-called Rivara Case, a financial scandal that culminated in the prosecution of more than 500 people who hoarded foreign currency and securities in Switzerland, out of control of the Spanish Institute of Foreign Currency. Through the analysis of the files that generated fines of more than one million pesetas in the first instance, the alleged justifications are explored, a preliminary map of the business sectors involved is drawn, and the tensions between different actors of Francoist State (policemen, judges, economical managers) are observed until the case is channeled under criteria of political «benevolence». The main conclusion is the generalized disconnection, around 1959, between Spanish businessmen and its fiscal duties concerning foreign currency and securities ownership. The context of this behavior was conditioned by discredit and inefficiency of the Francoist taxation, a historically weak tax compliance culture, and transnational interconnections that provided a clandestine route to financial resources or profit Historia y Política, avance en línea (2025), pp. 1-31 that was nevertheless socially accepted. Additional conclusions are Police effectiveness in fraud investigation, particularly in Barcelona, and the procedural diseconomies of the Francoist Justice for monetary matters.