The AN reopens the case in which ING, Caixabank, Ibercaja and Bandenia were being investigated for alleged money laundering

The Chamber says that the judge archived without investigating sufficiently and orders him to take a statement from representatives of the banks

MADRID, 12 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Criminal Chamber of the National Court (AN) has agreed to reopen the separate piece of the so-called 'Bandenia case' in which the banking entities ING, Caixabank, Ibercaja, Bandenia Banca Privada PLC and Bandenia Banca Privada Branch in Spain for alleged money laundering.

In an order, to which Europa Press has had access, the magistrates of the Fourth Section revoke the decision of the head of the Central Investigating Court Number 5, Santiago Pedraz, who decided to archive this line of investigation last July "since it was not duly justified the perpetration of the crimes that were imputed" to the banks.

Now, the magistrates have partially upheld the appeal of the Prosecutor's Office, which asked that the investigation be extended for at least six months to take statements from those investigated and witnesses and continue to delve into the investigations.

Specifically, the Chamber considers that it is appropriate to agree on this new extension of half a year "in order to practice the declaration of the specially designated representatives of legal persons", that is, of banks.

The Public Ministry, however, had requested that those responsible for the banks' regulatory compliance programs declare, a premise to which the Fourth Section magistrates have not agreed.

In the order, the Chamber reproaches Judge Pedraz for not having carried out "an analysis of the evidence, or at least of those that could point to alleged criminal conduct in order to distort them."

"Or at least to prove its insufficiency in order to continue the proceedings, especially when apparently there are investigative proceedings that have not yet been incorporated into the case, and therefore have not been analyzed by the investigator. , while on the contrary, the Public Prosecutor's Office in its writ of appeal provides numerous indications derived from the result of the investigative procedures carried out to date, which would require at least a specific pronouncement in this regard," the magistrates conclude.

The then head of the Court, magistrate José de la Mata, agreed to the creation of this separate piece in July 2019. And he did so, as he explained at the time, after having obtained objective data that pointed to "the systematic breach of current legislation on prevention of money laundering by Ibercaja, Caixabank and ING in the banking operations carried out in these entities by the Bandenia Group".

In his order, the judge detailed that "one of the main activities" of Bandenia was "to act as a shell bank to simulate the provision of a wide spectrum of financial services, including making international currency movements hiding the Spanish and other jurisdictions to the real holders of the displaced capital".

"The main mechanism used by Bandenia to carry out currency movements under the guise of allegedly lawful activities, consisted of opening omnibus accounts in various Spanish financial institutions, together with the issuance of bank guarantees and the granting of loans to justify movements of capital, which are formally attributed in a unique way to a company of the Bandenia group", explained De la Mata.

To do this, according to the judge, in the first place, a joint account contract was signed with each client, through which Bandenia assigned each of them an internal account from its parent company or from one of the entities associated with the company. same.

"Secondly, Bandenia contracted the opening of credit bank accounts in Spanish financial institutions, such as Caixabank, Ibercaja and ING. The ownership of these accounts was held mainly by Bandenia Banca Privada PLC", added the magistrate.

Thirdly, according to the court report, Bandenia internally linked each of these bank accounts opened in Spanish financial institutions to several internal accounts of its own parent company, which belong to different clients and normally grouped by currency.

"The conclusion is that, in this way, through a single account titled in one of the previously described banking entities, Bandenia carried out financial operations in which various internal Bandenia accounts participated, which corresponded to different clients," explained the instructor. .

Thus, through these operations, the funds were sent through an electronic transfer to extraterritorial banks or companies (offshore centers), located in places where banking and corporate secrecy is strong enough so that the traceability of the money is lost, either in banks in tax havens, or through trusts or shell companies.