Three or four clients sitting in the waiting room, a smiling receptionist welcoming whoever crossed the threshold, and a coming and going of employees. This was the appearance of the Vitaldent clinic in Arrecife this Thursday. In appearance, the normality of any dental clinic on any given day. This was not, however, just any day in that clinic. This Thursday it became known that the administrators of this franchise in Arrecife, brothers Javier and Óscar Arteaga, have been sent to prison by the judge investigating the alleged fraud orchestrated by the Vitaldent leadership, after being arrested in Operation Topolino.
On the surface, calm was breathed in the clinic. One of its patients assured La Voz that she is not "worried" about what happened. "They are doing the treatment to me, at the time it is and without problem," she explained to La Voz when leaving the facilities, where she has been attending assiduously for four months. This Thursday she has done it again, already aware of the scandal. Despite this, she believes that everything is "fine", that everything continues "normal", "as always". But for the workers, things are not as always; and that supposed normality becomes tension when mentioning the investigation to them.
With 13 detainees, 6 of them already in provisional prison, and an alleged fraud that could reach 10 million euros, the Vitaldent case has become an earthquake. Its epicenter is in Madrid, but the tremors were also felt this Thursday in this clinic in Arrecife. The establishment remained open and its twelve workers continued in their positions. La Voz de Lanzarote has tried to speak with some of them, to find out how they are experiencing the judicial situation in which the company is involved, or to get an assessment of what happened. The various attempts, however, have been in vain.
Forbidden to talk to the press
The employees of this clinic continue to attend to patients and everyone who arrives at the establishment is received with kindness and courtesy. They have accompanied that same courtesy with multiple apologies when refusing to comment on the situation to La Voz. The workers have assured this media outlet that they "cannot" speak to the press, that they cannot comment "anything". They have received orders not to do so. Their nervousness is evident when asked about it. And that's because they have been facing those questions for two days, because they have been repeated by almost all the clients who have visited the clinic since the Udef records began last Tuesday at the Vitaldent central offices.
Insisting on the apologies, the director of the company's franchise on the island has refused to comment. He has repeatedly referred to the communications that the company has made from its headquarters, which assures that they will continue to attend to patients normally in all franchises. Despite that friendly treatment, the secrecy before the press in Arrecife is such that this employee has not even wanted to corroborate or deny that Javier Arteaga was the owner of the Lanzarote franchise. Not even to make statements to convey a message of tranquility to the patients on the island. The order from above is to remain silent.
Also excusing himself, another of the workers to whom this media outlet has addressed has repeated that he cannot comment on those or other aspects. And similar has been the reaction of the smiling receptionist at the entrance. When asked how she received the news of the judicial investigation, she has limited herself to notifying the director of the presence of this media outlet in the establishment. Thus, without losing her smile, she has avoided making any assessment.
Within the investigation of this case, the Prosecutor's Office points to the administrator of the Lanzarote franchise, Javier Arteaga, as a "trusted man" of Ernesto Colman, president of Vitaldent and the main defendant in the case. Colman is supposedly the architect of a fraudulent system that could reach up to 10 million euros. Allegedly, among other things, he demanded that his franchisees pay part of the agreed amounts in black money. According to several media and agencies, this administrator of the Lanzarote franchise could be the "collector" of that money in cash, the person in charge of making the "collection rounds" in the franchises, on his own or through his brother, Óscar Arteaga. In the home of the latter, also arrested and sent to provisional prison, the agents found more than 600,000 euros in cash.
