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The account of the Lucum foundation opened in the Swiss Banking Mirabaud & Cie in which King Emeritus Juan Carlos I received in August 2008 a transfer of 65 million euros from the Ministry of Finance of Saudi Arabia was hidden with zeal, according to it of the declaration of its main person in charge to the Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa. Neither the bank’s Compliance department, which examines the opening of PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) accounts and watches over the entity’s reputation, nor the legal department officially knew that Juan Carlos I was a client.
Only the six members of the so-called Council of Associates of the Swiss entity knew that the beneficiary of the foundation was the then Head of the Spanish State. The Lucum Foundation form was kept in a safe, in the bank’s central file, to which only associates have access. The private bank Mirabaud & Cie, founded in 1819 and with offices in Spain, has been under investigation for alleged money laundering since 2018.
“Were there clients that the Compliance department and legal department did not know about?” Prosecutor Bertossa asked Yves Mirabaud, president of the entity’s Board of Directors and then a member of the exclusive Associates Council, during an interrogation in Geneva in March.
“Customers, no, if a beneficiary, namely the former king of Spain.” He is the only beneficiary known to only all the members of the Associates Council.
– Who gave the approval to the opening of the account of the Lucum Foundation in 2008?
—To the extent that it is a PEP [Persona Políticamente Expuesta]It was the Associates Council that gave the go-ahead to that opening.
Prosecutor Bertossa asked Mirabaud why Eric Buhler, head of Compliance appears in various validation protocols of transactions related to the Lucum Foundation and if he knew who was the beneficiary of the same. “As I recall, I had informed him verbally, as well as the other members of the Anti-Laundering Committee (CAB). The only reason why it was decided to keep the name of this beneficiary confidential was the following: it was a matter of avoiding too wide a dispersion among employees with the intention of maintaining discretion, ”the banker replied.
Yves Mirabaud, former president of the Swiss Private Banking Association, explained that the account was opened by the company Rhone Gestión through the external manager Arturo Fasana. The latter met with Antoine Boissier, a manager of the bank he had known for years, and with Pierre Mirabaud, another senior official in the entity and a member of the Board of Associates. The banker related it like this: “I first heard about the desire to open that account in a session of the board of directors. The identity of the beneficiary of the Lucum Foundation and the origin of the funds were discussed. Mirabaud (Pierre) and Boissier explained that it was a donation from the King of Saudi Arabia in favor of the King of Spain, that the funds would come from the Ministry of Finance of Saudi Arabia and that the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in the United States had confirmed these elements Mr. Fasana. All this information was communicated by Fasana who, in his capacity as an independent manager, was the main person in charge of the due diligence (due diligence) ”.
“Did anyone from the Mirabaud Bank meet with the King of Spain or a representative of Saudi Arabia?” Asked the prosecutor.
“Not that I remember, but we knew that Fasana knew the King of Spain personally.”
“Have you found documents in the bank files that corroborate Mr. Fasana’s explanations?”
“As far as I know there are no other documents apart from those that were attached to the account opening documents.”
Yves Mirabaud replied that he did not know why the King of Saudi Arabia was handing over 100 million dollars (65 million euros at the then exchange rate) and if someone from the bank asked Fasana that question. And he admitted that the Council of Associates, the body that gave the green light to open the account, did not ask legal advisers for information on the legality of the King of Spain receiving these funds.
“Did you find that transaction customary?” Asked the chief prosecutor in Geneva.
“I would say that this was a rather rare transaction.”
An internal bank report on the opening of the account of Juan Carlos I, dated August 6, 2008, explained the income of the 100 million dollars with the tag, “according to the Saudi tradition with other monarchies.” Mirabaud assured the prosecutor that he did not recognize the letter of this document, attributed it to the department of external managers and claimed to have read in the press that some monarchs follow this tradition. He also said that he did not know who put the word “rentista” that appears in the request to open Lucum’s account.
“Who at the Mirabaud bank knew the identity of the beneficiary when the account was opened for the Lucum Foundation?” The prosecutor asked him.
“Only the Council of Associates.” The bank’s Compliance department did not have this information. And neither did the legal department— he replied.
According to his statement, the council was made up of Yves Mirabaud, Pierre Mirabaud, Thierry Fauchier-Magnan, Thierry de Marignac, Marc Perreire and himself. The former director said that no one in the Associates Council opposed the opening of the account and that they thought that “a monarch was not a fiscally concerned person.”
A real customer canceled for the elephant hunt
The bank decided to cancel Juan Carlos I’s account when the elephant hunting scandal in Botswana became public in 2012. The owners of the entity feared for the reputation of their company if it emerged that the then head of state was their most secret client. “We consider that it was not appropriate to maintain that account. We informed Mr. Fasana and the Canonical lawyer (director of the foundation) of this decision. They took note of it. It was not me who reported that decision, it was Mr. Boissier or Antonio Palma (bank managers) ”. As a result, we received instructions to make a transfer with the approval of the beneficial owner (Juan Carlos I), explained Mirabaud in his interrogation. The banker acknowledged that he knew that behind the company to which 64.8 million were transferred in an account of the Gonet & Cie bank in the tax haven of the Bahamas was Corinna Larsen. “I did not know the reasons why they wanted to make this donation,” he added.
