How senior officials in the Andorran government 'protected' friendly banks from the US and let BPA collapse
Fuentes Informadas published the transcripts of a conversation between former National Police Commissioner, and key member of Operation Catalonia, José Manuel Villarejo and a journalist, in which Villarejo states that he was ordered by a government official to stop investigating Andbank and instead shift attention to BPA, so as not to "bother a senior State personality", in reference to the former King of Spain, who had accounts in Andbank.
Senior officials in the Andorran government let the Private Bank of Andorra (BPA) take the fall for the illegal practices of their other national banks by presenting false incriminating information about BPA to the United States.
On 26 August 2014, at the request of the US embassy in Spain, a communication was sent from the American government to the Andorran government, warning of the lack of regulation of cash deposits in the Andorran financial system. In particular, the communication noted that it appears that certain actors are using Andorra as a key place to invest and store illegal proceeds. In November 2013, the Netherlands and Spain dismantled money laundering practices of a network that had deposited €16 million of drug trafficking proceeds in bank accounts in Andorra. From the communication, it is clear that the US was not questioning any bank in specific.
BPA was first mentioned in relation to money laundering in an Andorran Police Report on the aforementioned drug trafficking network. However, all the major Andorran banks were mentioned. In fact, most of the €16 million were deposited in the prominent Andorran bank, Credit Andorra. At the time of BPA’s closure, Andorra’s Minister of Finance was Jordi Cinca, who had worked at Credit Andorra since 2000, becoming a director of Commercial Banking and member of the executive committee until his stint as Minister of Finance. Therefore, it is suspected that Cinca knowingly diverted attention away from Credit Andorra.
The other major Andorran bank, Andbank, was created from a merger of Banc Agricol and Banca Reig, owned by the Reig family. Oscar Ribas Reig is a former President of Andorra, suggesting that there are close ties between the bank and the Andorran government. This was given further credence when an audio recording was published by Villarejo, in which he explains that by order of Ignacio Cosidó, former Director General of the Police, he was to abandon a line of investigation into Andbank to avoid bothering a high-ranking state personality. Instead, Villarejo was told to divert data and findings against BPA. This clearly shows the complicity of key individuals in creating a case against BPA.
This article is adapted from an article originally published in Fuentes Informadas on 03 August 2022.