Ron rules out irregularities in the 2012 expansion of Popular and assures that the brochure was "clear and transparent"

It says that the directors invested 500 million in the expansion and received large profits from the appreciation of the shares.

MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former president of Banco Popular Ángel Ron has ruled out this Wednesday before the judge of the Santiago Pedraz National High Court that irregularities were committed in the capital increase carried out in 2012 while defending that the brochure in which the conditions of the same were collected it was "absolutely clear and transparent".

In statements to the media, collected by Europa Press, Ron has indicated that in his appearance before the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 5 he has explained that it was the Bank of Spain that asked the Popular to make "a capital reinforcement". "And we did it: we submitted the plan to the authorization of the Bank of Spain and the European Commission, which gave it to us, and it was executed," he added.

It was at that moment that the extension "was executed". "And all those who invested in that capital increase had quoted prices three and a half years higher than at the time of that purchase for four years," he continued.

Finally, Ron has stressed that the 2012 operation "was approved with the non-opposition of the Bank of Spain, which proposed to its executive committee precisely" the approval of the capital increase on which the judge focuses.

However, Ron has testified as a defendant in two lawsuits against that operation that Pedraz admitted when considering that "omissions and biased and misrepresented information could have been incurred to raise capital that would not otherwise have been possible to obtain, breaching the duties of information established in order to guarantee the transparency of the securities market".

Legal sources have explained to Europa Press that in his judicial declaration, in which he has only answered questions from his defense and the Prosecutor's Office, Ron has defended that the members of the Board of Directors of Popular disbursed 520 of the 2,500 million euros total . In this regard, the now former president has stated that no one invests his money in an operation of this type if his intention is to perpetrate a scam.

In addition, Ron has assured that the directors themselves were able to obtain substantial returns because the share doubled in a few weeks and maintained its price above that of the increase until the resolution of the bank in 2017, which also meant a high return for the rest of the shares. investors.

On the other hand, in his statement he has also referred to the acquisition by Popular of Banco Pastor. It was, he has argued, a decision made with sufficient information, through an orderly process and without conflict of interest.

In this sense, the former president has indicated that the acquisition, which was financed with his own resources, was authorized by the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission and by the shareholders of Popular itself.

This is one of the issues that the judge is investigating. In one of the complaints it was pointed out that the Board of Directors of Banco Popular was aware that if it projected the reality of the company's situation to the market, the 2012 capital increase would not achieve the desired results to achieve the injection of money with which to "patch" their critical situation, so they decided to alter the faithful image of the entity.

And this would have been done especially, the complainants detail, after the integration of Banco Pastor's accounts into Banco Popular, in order to give an appearance of solvency when in reality, the complaint points out, before a ruinous entity.

This same Wednesday, Judge Pedraz has also taken a statement as investigated to the former vice president of the entity with Ron, Roberto Higuera. His appearance, according to other sources consulted by this agency, has lasted for half an hour.

In it, Higuera has defended that all the operations were carried out correctly while recalling that the annual accounts for 2012 -the year in which Banco Pastor was absorbed- were audited by the consulting firm PwC, requesting its contrast to Deloitte.

This round of statements, the first since Judge Pedraz admitted the complaints for processing, will be completed precisely this Thursday with the appearance in court of PwC and the auditor of the latter, José María Sanz.