The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has admitted to processing three complaints filed against those responsible for Madeira Invest Club (MIC), the investment office sponsored by the far-right MEP Alvise Pérez and which closed unexpectedly on 16 September. The magistrate considers that it is “an alleged pyramid scam.”
In an order, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Four dismisses the request of one of the accusations to inhibit the Supreme Court from investigating MEP Alvise Pérez, who received 100,000 euros in cash from the founder of this financial club. It states that according to the doctrine of the High Court, a reasoned statement must be sent to investigate an authorized person when indications of responsibility appear.
Calama admits and accumulates, with a favorable report from the Prosecutor’s Office, the three complaints presented by Ances, the National Association for the Defense of Spanish Consumption of Services, the Association of Cryptocurrency Users and the Association of People Affected by Investments in Cryptocurrencies, the latter representing of a group of affected people. These complaints are directed against Álvaro Romillo as the person responsible for the MIC and against the company itself, among other responsible parties and entities.
In his order, the judge indicates that once it has been determined that the facts are likely to constitute fraud, it appears with “clear clarity” that they may constitute a crime of fraud and that they would be the jurisdiction of the National Court due to the number of victims and the amount of what was supposedly defrauded.
The judge points out that the overall damage reported by the accusations would amount to more than 11 million euros, a figure that exceeds the barrier of seven million euros that the Supreme Court has been setting as a parameter for attributing jurisdiction to the National Court. Furthermore, the instructor is based on functionality criteria to conclude that the National Court is the judicial body that is in a most favorable position to face the investigation.
Furthermore, the magistrate warns that a complex investigation is emerging, with a criminal network of multiple instrumental companies and international connections, with addresses in Portugal, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Estonia and Albania. A circumstance that will make it necessary to use “instruments of international legal cooperation” to determine the nature and circumstances of the events and those responsible, as well as to locate financial assets.
This procedure takes place in parallel with the one initiated after the confession of Romillo – alias Luis CryptoSpain –, who wrote a letter to the State Attorney General’s Office in which he claimed to have paid 100,000 euros in cash to Alvise Pérez. That document is already in the hands of the representation of the Public Ministry in the Supreme Court, which is studying whether there could have been a crime of illegal financing in the collection of that cash by the now MEP. In his letter to the Prosecutor’s Office, Romillo offered to liquidate his assets to compensate investors, who may number several hundred and who would have lost tens of millions of euros, according to the aforementioned complaints.
Source: www.eldiario.es
