Demands in cascades by clients of BPA

The way in which the entity was intervened, was not clear nor legal, even less when considering that suspected are only 3 percent of the clients out of 29 thousand.

In an exemplary action, more than 200 people affected by the blocking of their accounts by Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA), have joined in a large platform to take legal action against the Andorran Government, headed by Antoni Martí.

Advised by the law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, the affected clients are demanding compensation for actions qualifying as unfair and harming of their interests when being conditioned to withdrawing only 2 thousand 500 euros a week for over a year.

The intervention, which at all times was unjustified, has given a valid reason to the initiation of an unprecedented judicial process, where lawyers have made it clear to the international press that they will pursue the case with the justice of Andorra until the end. So that those affected can recover the full amount in their deposits, which now totals 366 million euros frozen by BPA and Banco Madrid.

The equity claim is based on the fact that the way in which the entity was intervened, was not clear nor legal, even less when considering only 3 percent of the clients were suspected out of a total of 29 thousand.

After such a long time, the patience of the clients has overflowed, when having been faced only with false promises by the Andorran government and by the deceit and chicanery of the managers of the BPA, who have gained the distrust of many investors due to their zero transparency in the administration of the bank.

It makes no sense that following the withdrawal of the alarm by FINCEN – the agency that is in charge of controlling the international money laundering of the US Treasury -, the Andorran Government keeps blocking the accounts and claims an alleged “money laundering” to justify the theft of money from thousands of clients who have been irresponsibly criminalised.

It is the largest class action lawsuit to date against the Andorran Government – a new headache for Antoni Martí -, to claim consequential damages, where the process is open to join for all those affected, not only from Europe but also of all nationalities.

After acting “so precipitously and blindly “, the managers of the BPA have sought to avoid at all times the responsibility of having been part of an unjustifiable intervention to the detriment of their clients.

The demand for administrative responsibility against the Government of the Principality also includes the Andorran National Institute of Finance (INAF), the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIFAND) and the State Agency for Resolution of Banking Institutions (AREB).

The bank never protected the interests of the clients, nor their banking secrecy, already from the beginning, and now by the wrong doings of the public administrations, in this case the Andorran ones, have not guaranteed their legal rights either.

The general feeling of the affected is that both Andorra and Spain over-reacted just to please the United States. In other words, the leaking of the report by SEPBLAC (Service for Prevention of Money Laundering) was decisive to sink BPA and Banco Madrid.