Ex-PP treasurer also has funds in US, Bahamas and Uruguay
Bárcenas found to have made regular trips to countries other than Switzerland to conceal cash
The Spanish tax agency has sent a new report to the judge investigating the Gürtel kickbacks-for-contracts graft case that worsen the charges against former Popular Party treasurer Luis Bárcenas even further.
The report reveals that Bárcenas, whom Judge Pablo Ruz is due to question on Thursday, has more accounts in different countries than those declared up to now.
The discovery not only renders void the 2012 fiscal amnesty in which he sought refuge — as it was done with untrue figures — but also means the scope of the financial fraud he may have committed is now double that previously estimated.
The National Fraud Investigation Office document, compiled after analyzing figures from the most recent request for information from the Swiss authorities, suggests that Bárcenas has accounts in the United States, the Bahamas and Uruguay, in addition to those already discovered in Switzerland, where he accumulated 47 million euros.
The Finance Ministry is carrying out a detailed analysis of Bárcenas’s relationship with Swiss bank Lombard Odier. The PP’s former moneyman visited the bank on 33 occasions between 2003 and 2008 to deposit wads of banknotes — totaling between 30,000 and 300,000 euros each time — that reached a sum of 4.174 million euros.
The visits tally with others he made to the Dresdner Bank in Switzerland, which he visited 35 times between 2000 and 2008, depositing sums of between 20,000 and 240,000 euros on each occasion for a total of 4.102 million.
