The Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court has ruled in favor of an investigation into an alleged crime of fraud by those responsible for the Madeira Invest Club (MIC), the investment office sponsored by far-right MEP Alvise Pérez and which closed its doors on September 16. Until then, it had captivated thousands of investors with 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 activities reserved for collective investment undertakings.
After its sudden closure, several groups of affected persons filed complaints against the company and “other related natural and legal persons” for crimes of fraud, embezzlement, criminal organization, falsification of commercial documents or money laundering. From now on, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requires that these complaints be admitted for processing and that they be accumulated in the same procedure. He also requested that the case be declared secret, as the special court prosecutor’s office reported in a statement.
This procedure is taking place in parallel with that initiated after the confession of the founder of the MIC, Álvaro 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. This document is already in the hands of the representation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Supreme Court, which is studying whether there could be a crime of illegal financing in the collection of this money by the current MEP. In his letter to the prosecutor’s office, Romillo offered to liquidate his assets to compensate investors, who could number several hundred and who would have lost tens of millions of euros, according to the aforementioned complaints.
