During the final months of 1715, the Council of the Indies was investigating Ribera, confirming that some of the complaints were real. As a result, Francisco Fernández del Barco was assigned to evaluate his administration. Ribera's anti-privateering politics were abolished. A few days after, Fernández issued two documents that secretly prepared the governor's eventually deposition. The first was sent to the governor of Cumaná, José Carreño, and requested that he travel to Puerto Rico and execute the confiscation of Rivera's property and interests with the help of local authorities which was done on May 3, 1716. The governor was then to be held captive at La Fortaleza, without communication separated from any allies, being then transferred to a jail. The second letter restituted all of the property that Ribera had stripped from Enríquez. The prosecution was swift, only two months later Fernández arrived to San Juan, taking control of the charges. Carreño took the office temporally, until the appointed interim governor arrived. Ribera and his associates were charged with contraband and monopolizing the market, falsely gathering money for causes that never materialized and of exploiting the Situado, among other things. He was sentenced to pay 40,317 pieces of eight and he was forced to pay an additional sum of 86,370 to Enríquez. Afterwards, Ribera remained imprisoned in El Morro until a frigate named "La Reina" arrived to take him to Spain. After only serving for nearly two years, the former governor was returned to Spain chained. However, this ordeal had a considerable impact on Enríquez's fortune, which was further exacerbated by the fact that he decided to sustain his employees despite the fact that his fleet was not sailing.