The pressures of the patriotic police in Andorra: "We want the accounts of Mas, Junqueras and Pujol"

MadridThe influence of Operation Catalonia on the Pujol case has resurfaced in the National Court. Following the testimony of four of the heads of the so-called "patriotic police," who They turned a deaf earNext up was Joan Pau Miquel, who was CEO of Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA) and He's been complaining for a while now. Pressure and coercion from the state's clandestine operations to force him to reveal banking information that could harm the independence movement. This Tuesday, specifically, he recounted three episodes: one in Andorra with Celestino Barroso, who was the Interior Ministry attaché at the Spanish embassy in Andorra from 2014 to 2017 and is scheduled to testify this week as a witness, and two in Madrid with Marcelino Martín Blas, who was head of internal affairs for the Spanish police and two weeks ago admitted to the meeting, but denied pressuring him to obtain banking information from BPA.

Celestino Barroso, who had a "message from Madrid," went to Joan Pau Miquel's office and warned him that if BPA did not cooperate with the Spanish state, the bank would "die" because he had influence in SEPBLAC, the Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Monetary Offenses, and warned him that "some Americans" would take over "after having gutted it." He urged him to speak with someone in Madrid who would explain what they were asking for to "prevent" the bank from disappearing.

It was the meeting with Marcelino Martín Blas—nicknamedFelix– at the Hotel Villa Magna in Madrid. He read him a statement saying that the Spanish state was "at war" with Catalan nationalism: "We want you to cooperate and provide us with information or bank account details of the families of Mas, Junqueras, and Pujol," he recalled. Joan Pau Miquel replied that he "did not have access" to this information, but Marcelino Martín Blas invited him to a future meeting.

So, later, in June 2014, they met again. "He was much more verbally aggressive. He told me that if we didn't comply, the bank would suffer the consequences," he stated. "The conversation was a bit absurd, because I didn't want to give him anything, I didn't know what I should give him, and he wasn't giving me any information that I could verify," he added. And they had a third meeting in which "everything was left open."

Joan Pau Miquel, who a few months ago He was sentenced to seven years in prison Regarding the money laundering case involving a Chinese businessman, he did acknowledge providing information to Marcelino Martín Blas: "It seemed harmless to us, but it could have been relevant to him. It was like a press kit on loose sheets of paper with information about possible operations linked to Catalan nationalism that suggested corruption," he explained. However, that wasn't what was published. The WorldBPA conducted an internal investigation but was unable to determine or rule out that the source of the leak was the bank itself. In March 2015, BPA was placed under intervention, and the Spanish police launched a massive raid, even going so far as to seize the databases without a court order.

At the end of the questioning, prosecutor Fernando Bermejo asked him why he didn't report the events at the time, and he made it clear: "It's not so common to feel coerced and pressured by a state as powerful as Spain." Joan Pau Miquel and Higini Cierco reported the events in 2016, and the case remains open in Andorra with Mariano Rajoy, among others, under investigation.

"We were delighted they left"

Another witness today was Manel Cerqueda, who was the non-executive chairman of Andbank, the bank where the family of the former president of the Generalitat held their money before transferring it to BPA. He testified that in 2010 he learned that the Pujol family had requested the destruction of some of the documentation regarding their accounts, and that the bank refused, which precipitated their departure. "We were delighted that they left and gave them every assistance to do so," he emphasized.