The judge investigating the capital increase of Popular in 2012 refuses to charge the Board of Directors

He considers that the "responsibility" of the top managers cannot be "extended" to the former directors of the entity

MADRID, 20 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court investigating the capital increase of Banco Popular in 2012 has refused to charge the members of the Board of Directors at the time the operation was carried out, understanding that the "responsibility" of the maximums cannot be "extended" directors of the entity to "all the members" of the Board itself.

In a procedure on December 16, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Investigating Court Number 5 agrees, after receiving a report from the Prosecutor's Office, that "it is not appropriate to take a statement as investigated" to the people proposals by the representation of Miguel Ángel Pereira, who represents about 50 people who lost their money in the capital increase.

It was in a letter presented on December 2, collected by this news agency, in which Pereira expanded his initial complaint and asked the magistrate to call a total of 18 directors and three former general directors of the bank to declare as investigated: the of Risks, that of Delinquency and that of Control and Audit.

"All of them, according to their own annual accounts for the 2012 financial year, had powers, competencies and directed, under the hierarchy of their superiors, the departments responsible for the bank's accounting and financial information," says Pereira's representation in reference to these three last.

And, with respect to those who were members of the Board of Directors, it considers that "all of them prepared, fabricated and effectively falsified the items, elements, information and supporting documentation, as well as the accounting and financial statements of the bank, disclosed and offered to the market and investors, on the occasion" of the capital increase in 2012.

"All the members of the Board of Directors voted in favor of all the agreements, adopting unanimously, assuming the decision to transfer to the market, to investors, the financial information that has been shown to not correspond at all to reality , nor with the faithful image", relates the writing.

In this context, it points out that "it was also all the members of the aforementioned Board of Directors who adopted the agreements by which the accounting of the merger by absorption of Banco Pastor was produced." "Incorporating accounting items, elements of assets for billion-dollar amounts that, subsequently, have been shown to be false, inaccurate, offering the market and investors financial information that did not correspond to the true image either," he adds.

The representation of Pereira expanded in these terms the complaint that was admitted last June by Judge Pedraz. It describes the financial situation of the bank in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and lists the indications by which it is understood that the information given for the 2012 capital increase was not true.

To date, the instructor has already taken a statement from the former president of the entity Ángel Ron and his vice president Roberto Higuera. Both defended in court that the expansion brochure was "clear and transparent" and that all operations related to the expansion were carried out correctly.

In addition, the magistrate has also questioned the former corporate and financial director of the bank Jacobo González-Robatto and the former president of the Audit Commission José Ramón Rodríguez, who argued that the aforementioned 2012 expansion was "a resounding success".