The Court asks the ECB and the CNMV for information on BBVA and Villarejo

The information provided by BBVA A judicial investigation is insufficient, according to legal sources. In fact, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor has requested several errands to the magistrate of the National Court to obtain more information to help clarify their contractual relationship with the companies of the ex-commissioner José Manuel Villarejo with the aim of obtaining the documents that the bank does not provide, according to the same sources. The Public Ministry seeks to raise all possible carpets and, for this, aims directly at the European Central Bank (ECB) and the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

Specifically, Anticorruption proposes to judge Manuel García Castellón to ask the Joint Supervisor Team (joint supervisory team between the ECB and the national banking supervisors) to request information sent to BBVA on January 14, 2019 regarding the hiring of Cenyt, business holding of the ex-commissioner. It also asks for the response the bank gave to the supervisory team.

In addition, the investigation also wants to achieve the information requirements requested by the CNMV from the bank in October 2018 and January 2019, as well as the response given by the entity in this regard, as stated in the Anticorruption brief dated November of last year. However, the lack of information from the supervisors about BBVA's relationship with the companies of the ex-commissioner is evident and materialized in the need for the ECB to resort precisely to the National Court to obtain information on this matter in this way.

Dome Research

The European supervisory body sent two months before, on September 6, 2019, a petition to the Central Court of Instruction number 6 so that I sent him the “relevant finds” of the forensic report that the financial group delivered to the judge last summer, before BBVA's refusal to send it to him, based on the fact that the case was then under summary secret.

The institution headed by Christine Lagarde argued in its writing that, among its tasks, is to “supervise compliance with the rules on governance structures”, as well as “the eligibility requirements of the people responsible for the management of credit institutions, both individually and collectively “, in addition to the entity's internal control mechanisms. Thus, the ECB indicated that the information contained in the forensic could” be relevant “for the exercise of its supervisory tasks.

The European organization evidenced with this letter on the one hand the inadequacy of information on the case that BBVA does not provide and, on the other, its intention to evaluate the dome of the blue entity, as well as the suitability of the members that compose it .

Who did have access to the forensic, at least part of it, was the former president of the Francisco González (FG) bank, charged since last November. As he declared before the former Chief of Risk and Real Estate of BBVA, Antonio Béjar, González called him last summer – three months after FG left his duties at the bank – and he tried to reassure him by ensuring that the bank's internal investigation did not involve him. However, quite the opposite, the bank pointed fully against him, in addition to the former delegated councilor, Angel Cano, or the former Chief of Security, Julio Corrochano.

Payments in the 'FG' era

BBVA made 53 transfers to the companies of Villarejo for 10.2 million between January 8, 2005 and December 12, 2018. The financial group, at that time, was chaired by Francisco González who left the presidency at the end of December of 2018. The former Chief of Security, Julio Corrochano and friend of Villarejo left before, with a retirement in April 2018. Despite his departure, the bank continued to pay the pillage.

Thus BBVA defended before the judge for Villarejo: “I don't know”, “I don't remember”, “I ignore it”