The consequences of this shameful farce puts now the Principality into a paradox

Unquestionably, the scandal of Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) had a “modus operandi” that involved judges and prosecutors who at the time folded to the service of political and economic power, which has been exposed with the recent declaration of Rafael Pallardó, a lawyer and businessman arrested in Spain for his involvement in the alleged money-laundering network of the Chinese mafia and main witness against the former managers of the defunct Andorran bank.

Pallardó, launched the bomb a few days ago when he contradicted the allegations made in March 2015 before the Spanish Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office within the framework of a commission urged by the Andorran courts. In Spain, the same day, he reported the suspicious operation of “compensation” he carried out with the managing director of the bank back then, Joan Pau Miquel.

The businessman appeared before the Andorran police to give details of the mechanism of the alleged money laundering conspired by the bank and provided dates, amounts, account numbers and personal data of those who participated in the alleged conspiracy. Among them, Joan Pau Miquel, CEO of BPA, who was arrested, was questioned and imprisoned for nearly two years without bail. Upon the case being dismissed, the authorities acquitted Joan Pau at the beginning of this year.

In this plot of lies and simulations, Pallardó is the great informer, the key witness on whom the investigation was cemented that led to the intervention of BPA by the Government of the Principality. Surprisingly, after more than two years, the informer contradicted himself in a file submitted to the Section of Specialized Instruction 1 of the Andorran courts this past 15 March. Here he affirms that the statement to the Andorran police in March 2015 and those made before the judge on the 2nd and 6th of June that same year, were induced by the agents. He would have confessed in that document “I did not go voluntarily to Andorra, but it was my lawyer who confronted me eight days before, saying that I had to testify before the Andorran police”.

His performance in Andorra was perfectly instrumented to justify and motivate, at least partially, the subsequent intervention of BPA. That is to say, and he was no more than a “puppet” used by the prosecution and by the Court to denounce alleged illegal practices (now disproved) of some managers of BPA, which eventually led to the intervention of the bank. He even hinted threats by the General Prosecutor of Andorra, Alfons Alberca.

The counsel Valentí Martí Castanyer in Andorra presented this file by Pallardó, where it has caused a great stir that has reached the foundations of the National Court.

The criminal, administrative and economic consequences of this shameful farce now puts the Principality into a paradox; the final dissolution in bankruptcy of the Andorran bank left a long trail of litigations from the responsibilities– both inside and outside the country of the Pyrenees– of the former owners and managers of the Banca Privada to the claims by the Cierco brothers. There are also thousands of clients who grouped to claim compensation for damages, which by right belongs to them, and collaterally the employees that are not being guaranteed their pension funds accumulated in the previous bank, among other “invoices” that the new owners of Vall Banc refuse to pay.

Given the lack of trust that the Principality generates today as an international financial center, after the outbreak of the BPA scandal, the Minister of Finance, Jordi Cinca, has proposed a strategic plan for the financial sector in 2017 in a desperate manoeuvre, while appearing before the Special Committee of Surveillance and Prevention of Risk for Financial Stability.

However, the president of the liberal parliamentary group José Pintado, replied from the other side, stoking the fire even more: the Government belatedly begins to “reflect” on the goals that were set when the Commission was created, specifically, the establishment of a central Andorran bank, and to participate in payments and enter the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  This is something that he sees very complicated due to the discredit caused by the government of the Principality itself.