The National Court is continuing to scrutinize the Vitaldent case, with investigations extending to about fifty judges and the former owner, a Uruguayan businessman named Ernest Colman, tied to alleged large-scale schemes and franchising fraud spanning years.
After seven years of inquiries by the National Court and the eventual annulment of one file, the judge stated that around fifty individuals faced charges including membership in a criminal organization, fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering as the process moved toward abbreviated procedures accessible to EFE.
Ernest Colman, previously at the helm of Vitaldent, stands out among those facing charges. He had approximately 15 months of imprisonment for allegedly acting as a trusted lawyer across several companies. Bartolo Conte, identified by the court as leading an “organized structure” from 2005 until the investigation began, is appealing the ruling.
The case’s stated objective was described as the execution of large-scale scams, including tax and contract irregularities, along with laundering of profits. The investigation extended across borders to the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, involving franchisors, franchising entities, and firms handling accounting, taxation, labor, and professional services, with reach not limited to Spain.
The judge noted that Colman allegedly built an institutional and privileged framework, a model aimed at enriching the organization by various means, such as imposing extra costs on franchisees or steering advertising fees paid by franchisees toward other uses.
Contrary to public claims, the judge indicated that benefits or discounts enjoyed by the brand did not return to franchisees, who still paid an 11% royalty. This dynamic was said to have raised prices for patients and purportedly degraded the quality of prosthetic devices.
The court observed the presence of an alleged B accounting that generated substantial amounts of financially opaque money. The working method reportedly involved each clinic producing a monthly amount in a secondary account and directing about 10% of those funds to the main establishment as part of the concealed revenue stream.
According to the judge, the collection system operated by handling cash during annual franchisee meetings and also demanded monthly cash payments of €10,000 to own clinics and select trusted franchisees.
The court also found prices set above market level, with certain products blocked from discounts through a computerized program or restricted to patients not authorized by the system.
To illustrate the supposed extra costs, the judge explained that if a clinic installed 500 crowns worth of implants, the Vitaldent lab might charge €55,500 for the crown, whereas another lab would charge €27,500. This discrepancy was described as a clear benefit for the headquarters at the expense of individual franchisees.
The court referenced the existence of “collaborative franchisees” who worked with the alleged criminal organization to the detriment of other franchisees, while receiving better conditions in return.
Within this framework, Colman would have contracted with franchisees from Spain, Italy, Poland, and Portugal on terms designed to yield significant advantages through oversight of training, advertising, facility rental, implant materials, suppliers, and the collection of franchise fees, among other components.
In October 2021, the judge closed the case after a dealer complaint reportedly found fraud not proven. Two months later, the Criminal Division reversed that decision, citing concrete indications of alleged wrongdoing, signaling a reevaluation of the earlier assessment.