Spain Ex-PM Zapatero Denies Bailout Scheme as Court Hunts His Crypto
Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero denied orchestrating an influence-peddling scheme tied to a $61.5 million airline bailout, testifying on June 17 as investigators pursue an asset hunt that now reaches his cryptocurrency.
The decide positioned Zapatero on the “apex” of an organized community. He advised the court docket that funds flagged by investigators have been respectable consulting charges and design work for his daughters’ company.
Zapatero Denies the Plus Ultra Bailout Scheme
During a three-hour listening to at Madrid’s Audiencia Nacional, Zapatero confronted 4 prices spanning affect peddling, cash laundering, tax fraud, and smuggling.
He answered solely the decide and his personal lawyer.
He denied any contact with authorities officers or airline executives over the rescue.
According to authorized sources, he stated he didn’t meet Plus Ultra’s present president till 2024, three years after the bailout was accepted.
The probe facilities on the 2021 rescue of Plus Ultra, an airline with ties to Venezuelan businessmen, which drew $61.5 million by way of state holding firm SEPI.
The decide says Zapatero ordered an offshore firm arrange in Dubai to handle funds, registered eight days after the cupboard accepted the help, in keeping with infoLibre.
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Inside the Zapatero Crypto Seizure Order
Investigating Judge José Luis Calama signed a seizure order on May 18, directing Spain’s financial crime police to trace and seize any Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) tied to Zapatero.
The measure joins frozen financial institution accounts and the offshore firm checks.
Any recovered tokens would transfer to Prosegur’s high-security crypto bunker in Madrid, which shops keys offline beneath a contract for judicial crypto seizures.
Calama has prosecuted Spain’s largest crypto frauds, together with the Madeira Invest fraud that snared greater than 3,000 folks.
Spain has tightened crypto oversight beneath new EU money laundering rules.
Its courts have reached for blockchain instruments earlier than, from a major crypto scam final 12 months to Spain’s seized Bitcoin holdings bought after greater than a decade.
Zapatero supplied the court docket a “voluntary common authorization” to confirm his property and stated he holds nothing overseas.
“I’ve completely nothing outdoors of Spain,” read an excerpt within the report, citing Zapatero.
The instruction part continues, and Calama has not confirmed whether or not tracing has positioned any wallets.
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