Ex-Banesto chairman in custody over multi-million theft and fraud probe

FORMER manager of Banesto bank Mario Conde is in custody after around €13 million was found stashed in tax havens, thought to have been siphoned from the now-defunct entity and hidden from Spanish fiscal authorities.

Conde, 68 (pictured left), has been on parole for the last 11 years after being sentenced to 20 years in jail in the year 2000 for the 'Banesto Case', where he was found guilty of misappropriation of funds, forgery and fraud.

At the end of 1993, the Bank of Spain decided to carry out an audit on Banesto and discovered a €3 billion accounting fraud, or 500 billion pesetas as it was then, plus a 'hole' of more than €3.6bn (600 billion pesetas) in addition.

The amounts of cash found to have been leaked out of the entity when Conde was chairman reached over €26m.

Much of the money was never found again.

But this week, a probe into the repatriation of €13m from Switzerland, Luxembourg and the UK, part of which is thought to be from the Banesto money which vanished in the 1990s, has uncovered what appears to be a network of dormant companies abroad through which funds were regularly transferred to similar entities in Spain owned by others in cahoots with Conde.

The companies in Spain were in others' names rather than in that of Mario Conde and the cash was sent to them in various formats, purporting to be loans, capital injections and cash deposits.

One of these companies, Hogar y Cosmética Española, S.A. - involved in manufacturing and international trading of toiletries, beauty products and cleaning fluids – based in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) was raided yesterday.

As well as Conde himself, his daughter Alejandra, son Mario Junior, son-in-law Fernando Guasch Vega, and four others – Francisco Javier de la Vega, Francisco de Asís Cuesta, Roland Stanek and María Cristina Álvarez Fernández – have been taken into custody.

Sources close to the case do not expect further arrests imminently, but say six other people, possibly with close family and friendship ties with Conde, are 'helping with inquiries'.

Seven properties have been searched, including Hogar y Cosmética Española in Torrejón de Ardoz – five in Madrid city, and a farm complex in the province of Ourense in Conde's native Galicia.

The premises searched include Mario Conde's home address near the C/ Pío XII in Madrid (pictured above right).

Conde's solicitor would not speak to reporters following his client's arrest, saying he 'could not give any information' as the case had been declared sub judice.