The “patriotic police” intoxicated FinCEN to provoke the downfall of BPA - La Valira

Former majority shareholders of Private Bank of Andorra (BPA), the Cierco family, today welcomed new evidence suggesting that high-ranking members of Spain’s intelligence community and Andorra’s political elite had misled the US government in a bid to discredit prominent leaders of the Catalan independence movement.

Speaking on the revelations, a spokesperson for the Cierco family said: “The expropriation of BPA was a three-part takedown based on spurious — and at times —fabricated evidence. FinCen’s misguided statement was the death knell for BPA. It now turns out that it was the direct result of an unlawful smear campaign launched jointly by Andorran and Spanish authorities.”

In 2015, the US government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) issued a statement accusing BPA and its Spanish subsidiary, Banco de Madrid, of facilitating money-laundering practices. Subsequently the Andorran and Spanish authorities expropriated BPA’s assets, forcing the Andorran bank and its Spanish subsidiary into administration, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of investor losses. FinCen later dropped the charges against BPA and the Spanish courts fully cleared BPA and its subsidiary, Banco Madrid, of any wrongdoing in Spain. 

New evidence now suggests that Spanish intelligence and law enforcement operatives behind 2014’s Operation Catalonia — a covert project aimed at fighting the Catalan independence movement — worked with the Andorran Prime Minister, Antoni Marti and Justice Minister, Xavier Espot, today Prime Minister of the Country, to dismantle BPA, whose clients included Jordi Pujol, the former President of Catalonia’s government. Jordi Pujol`s family had around four million euros of hidden money in the largest Andorran bank, Andbank, which was transferred to BPA. Spain and Andorra then provided misleading information to US authorities about BPA and Banco de Madrid, which led to FinCen’s ill-placed and premature denunciation.

In televised remarks made in May, José Manuel Villarejo, a former commissioner with Spain’s national police, confessed that the targeting of BPA had been part of a wider “Operation Catalonia”, which was designed to denounce Pujol for hiding money abroad. His words echoed a confession he had made in 2020, when he admitted to tipping off the US Government on the orders of Spain.

Francisco Martinez, the Spanish former Secretary of State for Security, made similar allegations in 2020. Admitting his involvement in the operation, he called the seizure of BPA by Andorran authorities as an "unjustified, disproportionate, and unfair” political decision. He contended that the bank was “in the spotlight of the ministry”, as it was “custodian of the fortune of the Pujol family”.

A spokesperson for the Ciercos added:

 “The confessions of these individuals, all of whom were key players in ‘Operation Catalonia’, confirm what the Cierco family suspected from the beginning: that the Spanish and Andorran governments tried to sabotage BPA. BPA was the only bank owned by outsiders to the Andorran establishment and it was made a scapegoat to protect other banks from scrutiny.

“The Andorran authorities have failed to show demonstrable progress in cleaning up the banking sector.  A first welcome step would be to come to the table and negotiate a fair settlement for the damage caused by their actions against BPA.” 

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