Canarian Weekly
15-04-2016, 11:21
FORMER Spanish banker Mario Conde, already convicted and jailed for fraud and embezzlement, was arrested in Madrid on Monday as part of a huge fraud investigation by police.
They are probing whether he has been up to his old tricks, fraudulently repatriating the equivalent of nearly 13 million euros in money he had hidden offshore.
He is believed to have salted it away while presiding over the collapse of one of Spain’s largest banks, Banesto, more than two decades ago.
His latest arrest, along with six other people, including two of his children and a son-in-law, was ordered by a judge from Spain’s national court.
The judge wants to know whether Conde and relatives set up a network of companies to help channel back to Spain the money said to be stashed away in offshore accounts in Switzerland, Britain and other financial centres before the demise of Banesto.
Spain’s central bank ousted Conde and took over Banesto in December 1993 after the lender had accumulated unsustainable losses.
Banesto, which had a financial shortfall of 605 billion Spanish pesetas at the time, equivalent to around 3½bn euros, was eventually sold at auction to Banco Santander.
Conde was convicted on a series of fraud and embezzlement charges and served two separate prison sentences. His current arrest comes as several banking-related corruption cases are moving through the courts, set off by Spain’s property bubble bursting in 2008.
The arrest also coincides with the names of some prominent Spanish residents appearing among the so-called Panama Papers, a giant leak of documents from a Panama law firm specialising in creating offshore companies for the world’s wealthy.
So far, Conde’s name has not cropped up in the Panama documents.
Conde’s rapid rise to prominence in the late Eighties, alongside his flamboyant appearance and lifestyle, symbolised Spain’s financial deal-making and economic boom of that era.
It was a period of excess, propelled partly by the huge subsidies Spain received after joining the European Union in 1986.
Conde, a trained lawyer, eventually used proceeds from the sale of a pharmaceutical company to buy a stake in Banesto, and then become its president in 1987.
He extended his reach as Spain’s most prominent banker by investing Banesto’s funds in other industries, including media.
In turn, his fall from grace put the spotlight on the close ties between politicians and businessmen in post-Franco Spain.
Conde, who defended himself during his trial, accused Spain’s Socialist administration, and the conservative corporate establishment, of engineering his downfall to block his political aspirations.
Police also raided Conde’s Madrid home on Monday, as well as the offices of companies linked to his relatives and associates.
This latest investigation centres on whether Conde used such firms, including a cosmetics company, to move back to Spain as much as 13m euros, which had been hidden overseas, according to Spain’s public prosecutors.
Conde was released from prison in 2005 after serving 11 years of a 20-year sentence.
His attempted political comeback, as a 2012 candidate in regional elections in his native Galicia, ended in failure.
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/bank-fraudster-conde-moved-13m-spain/)
They are probing whether he has been up to his old tricks, fraudulently repatriating the equivalent of nearly 13 million euros in money he had hidden offshore.
He is believed to have salted it away while presiding over the collapse of one of Spain’s largest banks, Banesto, more than two decades ago.
His latest arrest, along with six other people, including two of his children and a son-in-law, was ordered by a judge from Spain’s national court.
The judge wants to know whether Conde and relatives set up a network of companies to help channel back to Spain the money said to be stashed away in offshore accounts in Switzerland, Britain and other financial centres before the demise of Banesto.
Spain’s central bank ousted Conde and took over Banesto in December 1993 after the lender had accumulated unsustainable losses.
Banesto, which had a financial shortfall of 605 billion Spanish pesetas at the time, equivalent to around 3½bn euros, was eventually sold at auction to Banco Santander.
Conde was convicted on a series of fraud and embezzlement charges and served two separate prison sentences. His current arrest comes as several banking-related corruption cases are moving through the courts, set off by Spain’s property bubble bursting in 2008.
The arrest also coincides with the names of some prominent Spanish residents appearing among the so-called Panama Papers, a giant leak of documents from a Panama law firm specialising in creating offshore companies for the world’s wealthy.
So far, Conde’s name has not cropped up in the Panama documents.
Conde’s rapid rise to prominence in the late Eighties, alongside his flamboyant appearance and lifestyle, symbolised Spain’s financial deal-making and economic boom of that era.
It was a period of excess, propelled partly by the huge subsidies Spain received after joining the European Union in 1986.
Conde, a trained lawyer, eventually used proceeds from the sale of a pharmaceutical company to buy a stake in Banesto, and then become its president in 1987.
He extended his reach as Spain’s most prominent banker by investing Banesto’s funds in other industries, including media.
In turn, his fall from grace put the spotlight on the close ties between politicians and businessmen in post-Franco Spain.
Conde, who defended himself during his trial, accused Spain’s Socialist administration, and the conservative corporate establishment, of engineering his downfall to block his political aspirations.
Police also raided Conde’s Madrid home on Monday, as well as the offices of companies linked to his relatives and associates.
This latest investigation centres on whether Conde used such firms, including a cosmetics company, to move back to Spain as much as 13m euros, which had been hidden overseas, according to Spain’s public prosecutors.
Conde was released from prison in 2005 after serving 11 years of a 20-year sentence.
His attempted political comeback, as a 2012 candidate in regional elections in his native Galicia, ended in failure.
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/bank-fraudster-conde-moved-13m-spain/)