Large-scale whitening in the center of Madrid? The inspectors concluded that the Bank of Spain Bankia committed irregularities and failed to comply with anti -money laundering regulations on the sale of the Foster Tower in 2016 by 397.9 million. This has been transferred to the Service for the Prevention of Money Laundering (Sepblac) to investigate this transaction, as confirmed by ELMUNDO sources familiar with the report. In the Ministry of Economy, on which the Sepblac depends, they decline to comment.
Bankia sources admit to this newspaper that they provided ample documentation at the time to the inspectors of the Bank of Spain on the case and deny breaches of procedures. This newspaper already published on February 2, 2017 the investigation of the Bank of Spain, which has taken more than a year to send information to the Sepblac.
According to the data transferred, the inspectors believe that a first error of Bankia occurred already in 2013 when giving a purchase option to the Luxembourg company Muscari Investissement owned by the controversial executive of Arab Emirates, Khadem Al Qubaisi for 10 million euros without checking with due diligence the origin of your funds.
Al Qubaisi was then the managing director of International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and his plan was to buy the building to rent it to Cepsa. This Spanish oil company is owned by IPIC, but the building was not acquired by this sovereign fund, but by a company owned by the Emirati executive, according to the inspectors. Three years later, the Al Qubaisi company asked Bankia to execute the purchase option and, according to the inspectors, Bankia's board of directors ended up approving the sale on September 29, 2016. In its opinion, it should refrain from giving the green light , because it was known since the beginning of the year that in several countries legal actions had been taken against Al Qubaisi, including the United States and the United Arab Emirates for possible evasion of funds.In fact, a year earlier, in April 2015, Al Qubaisi had been dismissed in IPIC and after Cepsa itself.
Investigative buyers
The conclusion of the inspectors is that Bankia's own internal regulations prevented transactions with buyers that were investigated or that there are indications that they may be related to money laundering activities.
In addition, the bank whose main shareholder is the State, was not diligent, according to this investigation of the Bank of Spain, when making a special analysis and communicate to Sepblac the transaction characteristics.
On September 30, 2016, another company from Al Qubaisi, the Dutch company Muscari Property BV, not only managed to buy the Torre Foster from Bankia, but also obtained an immediate capital gain, because that same day it was resold for 490 million euros to Inmobiliaria Pontegadea, property from the owner of Inditex, Amancio Ortega. The Emirati company won, therefore, close to 100 million in minutes.
Sources of Bankia maintain that there was a contractual obligation to execute the purchase option, but it was only approved when accrediting the Al Qubaisi company that used Spanish money for the purchase. Indeed, Muscari accredited, according to the inspectors of the Bank of Spain, that he had received a loan of 400 million from Bankinter to be able to execute the purchase option. When Bankia verified that the money used actually came from an express loan from the bank whose main shareholder is Jaime BotÃn, he considered the transaction lawful.
The role of Bankinter
Sources close to the Sepblac assure that the role of Bankinter will also be part of the investigation.
The inspectors of the Bank of Spain question the role of the corporate director of Legal Services and Compliance of Bankia, Antonio Zafra, for possible lack of independence. At the time he was responsible for ensuring compliance with the procedures he held the position of administrator of Torre Norte Castellana, the Bankia subsidiary that owns the building in 2013. It was the same manager who defended in 2013 giving the option to buy the company of Al Qubaisi, the one that proposes the sale to the same conglomerate in 2016 and the one that defends before the Board of Directors of Bankia that with the intervention of Bankinter the origin of the funds of Al Qubaisi is identified.
His investigation opened last year bitter domestic controversy at the Bank of Spain. The Association of Inspectors accused their superiors of leaking information to Bankia itself about what the inspection was discovering.
Comments
Post a Comment