The founder of the Madeira Invest Club (MIC), the investment office sponsored by Alvise Pérez and which closed unexpectedly last week, assures in a letter addressed to the State Attorney General’s Office that he delivered 100,000 euros in cash in the middle of the electoral campaign. European elections to the then candidate and now MEP. According to the documents provided to the Public Ministry, the payment was received in person in Madrid by Alvise on May 27, a few days before the European elections in which his group Se Acabó la Fiesta (SALF) obtained more than 800,000 votes.
This is what is indicated in the document that the creator of MIC, Álvaro Romillo, also known on social networks under the pseudonym “Luis Cryptospain”, has submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The confession is accompanied by abundant documentation: conversations in which Alvise participates and that the crypto businessman has provided to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in case they constitute a crime, accompanied by an expert report that certifies their veracity. Romillo puts himself at the “disposal” of justice and offers to liquidate his assets to compensate his investors with the assets he still has and the money that appears in Portuguese bank accounts, as elDiario.es has learned. On Tuesday afternoon, this newspaper tried to contact the MEP via his phone, email and one of his advisers and has not received a response.
The delivery of the 100,000 euros to Alvise took place in the offices of Sentinel BQ, a company owned by the same owner of MIC that has 5,000 safes in the center of Madrid and that allows money exchanges under the promise of total confidentiality: behind the back of the Treasury and bypassing the anti-fraud measures to which financial institutions are bound. Alvise Pérez was supposed to go to the offices on Maldonado Street in Madrid on May 27 at 4 p.m., two weeks before the European elections. It was an employee of the company who, according to the story and evidence provided to the prosecution by the founder of MIC, gave him the money in cash.
After the delivery, the current MEP confirmed by SMS to Romillo that he had received the money. That same morning, he had told him in another message that these funds were very useful to him to finance the campaign. A few days earlier, on April 9 at 12:51, Alvise had announced his “needs”, among which he cited “funds that do not require control by the Court of Auditors” to finance rallies, advertising and campaign events.
Conversation between Alvise and the founder of the MIC in which the ultra agitator explains that he wants funds that the Court of Auditors does not have to study.
Alvise’s goal, as he himself told his interlocutor, was to raise “between 300,000 and 360,000 euros” to face the electoral campaign and pay the “suppliers” with whom he was in contact. He also referred to the need to obtain “funds for the party” that he regretted not being able to pay out of his own pocket due to the limits of the rules on financing political parties. But also, as he said, to be able to financially face the electoral promise of receiving his salary and the “fines” that he, according to him, would have to pay for “revealing secrets”.
Various messages sent to the prosecution show that Alvise wanted this money, at least in part, to finance his trip to Brussels. “We need funds for the campaign; digital, physical, audiovisual, propaganda, logistics, etc.” He also explains that collecting money through Sentinel would not hurt, given that one of his flagship promises is the donation of his salary as an MEP: “As I will give up 100% of my public salary, it is also a good thing for me. to finance the political adventure.
On May 25, Romillo created four wallets [monederos digitales donde están las criptomonedas] with which to collect funds from their subscribers. Almost instantly, Alvise broadcast the payment addresses via his Telegram channel, on which he then had almost half a million followers. “Given the banking limitations, squirrels are organizing themselves in the crypto world,” wrote the current MEP.
A day later, the MIC founder informed him that he had already collected just over 7,000 euros, but the SALF leader assured him that this sum was not enough to cover the expenses of his race for the European Parliament. “Excellent! But it’s going too slowly. Time is eating away at me for campaign payments,” Alvise replied. The next day, a message arrived from the leader of the Madeira Investment Club informing him that he could go to the Sentinel offices in Madrid to collect 100,000 euros in cash.
Message from MIC’s founder explaining to Alvise the “wallets” he created for him (left), message Alvise posted on his Telegram shortly after releasing these “wallets” to receive donations (right).
Identical speeches “against the State”
The relationship between the SALF leader and the founder of the bankrupt investment club began at the end of March this year, according to documents that the latter submitted to the prosecutor’s office. More than a month after Alvise announced on his Telegram channel his candidacy for the European elections in June and made public some of his big promises, such as the drawing of his salary.
Several months of conversations provided to the prosecution reveal that cryptocurrencies and confidential financing channels constitute, from the outset, the great interest they have in common. Alvise takes only a few days to comment on the possibility of opening wallets or virtual wallets to channel money. “Your speech is absolutely identical to mine against the State and that is why I want to support you,” Alvise says in one of the messages delivered to the Public Ministry and in which he opens up to promote his company Sentinel.
The law on party financing prohibits anonymous donations and establishes that political parties cannot accept or receive directly or indirectly from the same person donations exceeding 50,000 euros per year, nor donations from legal entities. Furthermore, any donation exceeding 25,000 euros must be notified to the Court of Auditors by the political party within three months of its acceptance.
The Madeira Invest Club closed suddenly last Monday, September 16. Until then, it had captivated hundreds of investors thanks to the exorbitant returns it offered, up to 53%, with supposed investments in digital and intangible works of art and other luxury goods. The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) issued an alert on this investment club on May 22, 2023 and warned that the company was not authorized to carry out the activities reserved for collective investment organizations.
The National Court has already received several complaints from affected persons, who have filed complaints against those responsible for crimes of fraud, embezzlement, criminal organization, falsification of commercial documents or money laundering. In his letter to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Romillo proposes to liquidate his assets to compensate the investors, who could number several hundred and who would have lost tens of millions of euros, according to the aforementioned complaints.
If you have more information about this case or know of any similar ones, you can write to us at pista@eldiario.es
