Situated between Spain and France, the Principality of Andorra has two Heads of State, the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain, and the president of France.
It is a well-known tourist hot spot especially for skiing and is self-governing with a population of just under 90,000 but is not a member of the European Union or Schengen.
The banking section had tax haven status and as such attracted a great deal of investment but according to one particular investigative group there is major financial scandal which has until now been mainly ignored by the mainstream media.
Andorra Government accused of financial irregularities in concert with Spain and USA
It is alleged that the Andorran Government has spent nearly 10 years investigating investments made in that country and following information received from US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) it concentrated on the Private Bank of Andorra, (BPA) which eventually closed with directors jailed but never convicted.
It is claimed that three different authorities were pursuing their own political agendas: the US aimed to crack down on supposed international money laundering; Spain was addressing Catalan independence sentiments; and Andorra sought to protect its elites from anti-corruption investigations.
In the event, despite the closure of BPA, no convictions in respect of alleged money laundering were ever proven and over the period of the last 10 years, FinCEN has since retracted its claims, and both BPA and its directors have been exonerated by the Spanish Authorities.
Further complicating the situation is the fact that in the wake of the Andorran government’s intervention into BPA, the authorities transferred what they deemed the bank’s ‘good’ assets to a newly formed entity, Vall Banc, which was later sold to the US firm JC Flowers for up to €29 million. The state absorbed more than €100 million in losses from BPA as part of this process. Additionally, €30 million was reportedly paid to the auditing firm PwC to review account holders, a fee that investor representatives claim equal to 14 per cent of all available assets. These transactions raise serious questions about whether the funds seized from BPA are still intact or have already been disbursed, thereby giving the Andorran authorities a financial incentive to delay restitution or maintain open-ended investigations against depositors.
Andorra Government accused of financial irregularities investors who have lost money to initiate lawsuit
In light of these orchestrations, it is evident that Andorra has continued to follow its own policy direction, and a lawsuit is now being prepared by large numbers of investors whose seized funds have not been returned, as they seek to recover their losses
The representatives of these investors further allege that the Andorran government is holding thousands of these foreign investors in a perpetual state of investigation as a means to seize their assets, with victims facing threats of jail, falsified arrest warrants, and Interpol red notices.
Gibraltar which exists at the other end of the Iberian Peninsula has been regularly accused by the Spanish Government of being a centre of money laundering which has never been proven, whilst it would appear that Spain has a policy of turning a blind eye to possible irregularities occurring in Andorra!
