February 2022 - Trial against BPA resumes in Andorra

The court case against BPA  – known as the ‘BPA Case’ or the ‘Gao Ping Case’ –  resumed after three years of postmonents in the Tribunal de Corts, Andorra’s criminal court. The case against BPA’s leadership was meant to start in 2018 but was delayed multiple times due to changes in legal representation and the Covid-19 pandemic. The case currently involves 25 former BPA directors. If found guilty, they could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison, ten years of professional disqualification, and receive a fine of €70 million. 

The Andorran authorities alleged that BPA assisted Chinese mobster Gao Ping and his associate Rafael Pallardo in their money laundering activities, but the bank’s directors deny any wrongdoing. 

Pallardo was a client of BPA between 2008 and 2011, but the bank decided to drop him when it acquired Banco Madrid and a banking licence in Spain, as Pallardó’s activities would amount to considered tax evasion in Spain. Andorran authorities were aware of Pallardó’s involvement in BPA as the bank reported his accounts in the  2011 and 2012 audit reports and he was mentioned in the reputation letter submitted to the INAF in 2014.

Pallardo and Ping were mentioned in FinCEN’s notice as  reasons for the designation of BPA as a foreign financial institution of primary money laundering concern.