audiencia niacional
Spanish authorities have ordered the arrest of three Swiss bankers, one of them from the Rothschild dynasty, for defrauding the Spanish Treasury of 40 million.

A Rothschild?! Let's see if they manage to get him behind bars!

They order the arrest of two Swiss bankers for a million-dollar fraud against the Spanish Treasury

The National Court issues search and arrest warrants for his role in an operation that defrauded more than 40 million euros. There are dozens of people awaiting trial.

The National Court has issued two international search and arrest warrants against two Swiss bankers for their role in a plot accused of defrauding more than 40 million euros from the Spanish Treasury in just one year. The measure was adopted last Tuesday after the failed attempt to notify them of their prosecution in a case in which there are already dozens of people waiting to sit in the defendant's dock to be tried. The two wanted are Manuel Andreas Marco Brandenberg and Nathan Rothschild . The Prosecutor's Office requested for them four and a half years in prison for falsehood, money laundering and illicit association.

The investigation has its origin in the purchase of hydrocarbons and fraud around the VAT of operations in this sector. The epicenter was a company called Lexin Corporación 21 SL , created in 2010 with headquarters in Madrid. In just a few months, it underwent two capital increases until it had a share capital of three million, the minimum required by the Government in Spain to be able to operate in the hydrocarbons sector. Authorities believe he did so using shell companies, false invoices, and without actually depositing the demanded money.

Lexin established its headquarters in Pamplona and was active in the fuel market in Spain from April 2011 until April 11, 2012, when it was intervened in court. "The total sum defrauded by Lexin Corporación 21 SL finally amounts to 42,782,507 euros" , concludes a report, prepared by the Navarra Tax Treasury, which works in the case to which El Confidencial has had access. The Prosecutor's Office arrives at the same data after an investigation in which the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard intervened.

The operation has international ramifications, since the money was later withdrawn from Spain or reinvested in real estate to be introduced into the legal circuit. "Nathan Rothschild and Manuel Brandenberg participate in the transfer of funds that would form part of the operation carried out by the organization, being transferred from Rothinvest Capital Inc to companies that are retitled by those truly responsible for the plot," says the National Court in a 2020 order in which he sent fifty people and companies to trial. Throughout 68 pages, it collects the accusations of the Navarra Tax Treasury, the State Attorney's Office and the Prosecutor's Office.

A third banker has appeared

A little over two years have passed since the self-opening of the oral trial and the National Court had still not managed to notify three people of their prosecution, for which it issued a first arrest warrant in November. The third, another banker residing in Switzerland, managed last week to have that petition withdrawn after voluntarily appearing to testify. Defended by the Ospina Abogados law firm, criminal experts in extradition, he reached an agreement with both the Prosecutor's Office and the Swiss authorities to travel to Spain without being arrested.

On the other hand, the other two have not appeared in the Central Court of Instruction number 4, directed by magistrate José Luis Calama. Nor have they done so before a notary in their country, an alternative proposed by the Justice to avoid having to travel to Spain. The Prosecutor 's Office denounces that this "generates an unacceptable delay in the processing of the case." "The attempt to notify the aforementioned order and the indictment documents, through a letter rogatory to Switzerland, has not given, for various reasons, the expected result, that is, a prompt notification that contributes or at least does not hinder the right of the rest of the defendants and other parties to have the procedure resolved within a reasonable time", says the public ministry.

"It is clear - concludes the National Court - that in the face of this last alternative, offered to the defendants in order to comply with the procedural procedure in question, no obstacle can be raised, except, of course, absolute and proven procedural bad faith, whose ultimate goal is to delay, even more, the course of the procedure, avoiding prosecution at all costs (...) the steadfast default of the defendants already represents the required flight risk, as it constitutes an express manifestation of their willingness to stay on the sidelines of the Spanish Justice".

Answer of the wanted

This newspaper has had access to the appeal filed by Nathan Rothschild in December. He denies trying to delay the process and blames the formal errors of the rogatory letter sent by Spain to notify him. One of the issues that he alleges is that it has not yet been translated into German, which is his language. He also rejects that he is trying to evade the Spanish Justice and for this he points out that he has already declared himself under investigation in the case and that he has not changed his address in Zurich for six years. On his part, on December 22, Manuel Andreas Marco Brandenberg also presented a letter in which he adhered to the same arguments put forward by Nathan Rothschild.

His arguments have not worked. On January 23, the judge issued an order confirming his November decision, when he agreed to provisional detention, as well as issuing "requests for search, arrest and admission to prison, and European and international arrest warrants". All this to notify them of the order to open an oral trial and to deliver the indictments from the Public Prosecutor, State attorney and the Navarra Tax Treasury. Judge Calama withdraws that petition for the third banker, "maintaining each and every one of the agreed pronouncements regarding Manuel Andreas Marco Brandenberg and Nathan Rothschild."