Spain requests Swiss judicial aid
Spain has requested Swiss judicial aid to investigate the finance company, Gescartera, which is suspected of embezzling SFr180 million.
The federal justice ministry received the request on December 3 from a Spanish parliamentary commission which wanted to know whether the owner of Gescartera, Antonio Camacho, who is currently in prison, held any bank accounts in Geneva.
Genevan authorities told Madrid that he did have accounts, said Folco Galli, a spokesman for the justice ministry.
Galli would not specify the number of accounts nor their value.
Gescartera, a brokerage firm, has clients which include the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind and several Catholic congregations.
The financial scandal has tarnished the government of José Maria Aznar. In July 2001, the state secretary for finances, Enrique Gimenez-Reyna, resigned over the affair.
Two months later, the president of Spain’s National Security Market Commission, Pilar Valiente, was also forced to resign a few days after the special parliamentary commission began its inquiry.
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