Several businessmen involved in the alleged “Azud Affair” plot created shell companies in Panama. One of them through the Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal) office. This is a law firm located at the epicenter of the massive “Panama Papers” leak and which seems linked to numerous corruption scandals around the world, including the “Odebrecht affair”. The company, founded in 1985 and “committed to complying with regulations regarding the prevention of money laundering,” according to its website, created the company Endinboro Investments SA, a key company in the investigation into the “Azud affair » to put an end to the allegations of commission payments to former politicians of the Valencian PP. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published two million confidential documents linked to the company, whose partners included former Panamanian Foreign Minister Alejandro Ferrer. The massive leak involved more than 14,000 offshore entities in Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Panama and other tax havens, created by Alcogal on behalf of more than 15,000 clients. One of them was the promoter Miguel Montoro, according to the summary documentation to which elDiario.es had access.
Investigations into the “Azud affair”, which investigates alleged crimes of money laundering, falsification of documents and influence peddling, among others, have revealed the alleged payment of a commission of one million dinars. euros to the former vice-mayor of Valencia, Alfonso Grau. Thus, the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard requested, through letters rogatory issued by the investigating judge and the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office to the Panamanian authorities, the documentation in possession of the related law firm to the company Endinboro Investments. ITS. Investigators were looking for the actual ownership of the shares and the list of bank accounts “in different jurisdictions, national and international”, as well as emails or correspondence with the real client.
The request to the famous office was made through the Superior Prosecutor’s Office for International Affairs of the Republic of Panama. The firm’s response, signed by partner Raul Zúñiga Brid, reveals that the firm’s client Endinboro Investments SA was the deceased businessman Miguel Montoro, whose daughter Mónica is listed as the subject of an investigation into the “Azud case”. The incorporation of the company was requested by email by a professional client of Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee based in Switzerland: Apex International Consulting SA.
In a meeting lasting more than two hours with the Superior Prosecutor of International Affairs of the Republic of Panama, held on April 11, 2022, the Spanish Judicial Commission — formed by the investigating judge, Pepa Tarodo; the anti-corruption prosecutor, Pablo Ponce; an agent of the UCO and a lawyer from the Administration of Justice—obtained the file containing valuable documentation for the continuation of the investigation, including the notarial deed of registration of the company and the document The national identity of Miguel Montoro in the hands of the Panamanian office. The same prosecutor has already traveled to Panama as part of the “Erial affair” to follow the trail of the “offshore” structure created by another well-known company in the Central American country – Soberón y Asociado – and attributed to former PP minister Eduardo Zaplana, currently awaiting sentencing in the “Erial Affair” trial.
The company Endinboro Investments SA, created on July 26, 2004 with capital of $10,000, had three Panamanian directors: president Edgardo Eloy Díaz, secretary María Villarino and treasurer Myrna de Navarro. The first two each held one share in the company. Lawyer and diplomat Jaime Eduardo Alemán, partner of the firm and Panamanian ambassador to the United States between 2009 and 2011, was a registered agent of Endinboro Investments SA.
Miguel Montero was not the only businessman linked to the “Azud Affair” plot with a company in Panama. The Spanish letter rogatory also requested information from the law firm De Obaldía & García Paredes on the company Construcciones Tritom SA, created in 1994 with capital of $10,000 and whose management bodies included the businessman Jaime Febrer, one of the main people investigated in this matter. .
“Since the end of 1996, we stopped communicating with the representatives and interlocutors of this company, the professional relationship (…) effectively ended and it was classified as inactive in our system, from 1999, in accordance with the regulations that regulate resident agents,” reads the office’s “confidential” document.
For their part, data from the Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee firm on the company Endinboro Investments SA allowed the UCO and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to locate the money in the businessman’s accounts in Switzerland and in Monaco.
The investigation revealed that another Panamanian company of Miguel Montoro, Jagat Inc., had opened an account in Switzerland in which, in addition to the businessman, the former PP advisor Rafael Blasco, convicted of embezzlement of Valencian cooperation funds. documentation includes your signature and ID). The former PP politician appears linked to a payment of 600,000 euros, as reported by this newspaper. Documentation from Banque Pasche, currently called Banque Havilland, indicates that Montero and Blasco had “joint business.”
The real estate developer withdrew nearly 180,000 euros, in 500 euro notes, from one of the Monegasque accounts he held in the Edmond de Rothschild entity. When Rafael Blasco was indicted in the case of embezzlement of Valencian cooperation funds, the businessman put an end to his offshore structure in Panama, Switzerland and Monaco.
On September 24, 2013, the Panamanian shell company, dedicated according to its corporate purpose to “all legal activities”, was dissolved. Three days later – September 27 – he closed his Swiss account. And on October 11, he canceled the account in Monaco.
It was precisely at this time that Rafael Blasco appeared in striking photographs talking on the telephone in a public telephone booth.
