Detained in Germany: the financial architect of the 'Plus Ultra case' arrives in Madrid on Thursday
Simon Leendert Verhoeven, a 67-year-old Dutch financier, was arrested in Germany and will be handed over to Spain on 24 September, according to lavozdegalicia.es.
The Dutch financier in the 'Plus Ultra case' arrested in Germany, heading to Madrid
German authorities have detained Simon Leendert Verhoeven, the 67-year-old Dutch financier whom investigators identify as the central figure in the structure used to move and launder illicit funds from Venezuela in the so-called 'Plus Ultra case', according to lavozdegalicia.es. The arrest and forthcoming extradition to Spain have been confirmed by sources in the investigation.
Verhoeven will arrive in Madrid this Thursday 24 September at approximately three o'clock in the afternoon, on a flight from Frankfurt. This is set out in a communication sent on 17 September by the Sirene Spain Office to the Central Investigating Court number 2 of the National Audience.
The businessman was wanted for the alleged crimes of misappropriation of funds, bribery, money laundering and membership of a criminal organisation. The search and arrest warrant was agreed on 12 February by judge Esperanza Collazos, after the UDEF notified her that Verhoeven was not in Spain and Anti-Corruption requested his international detention.
The initial Madrid court stood down a few days later. Judge José Luis Calama accepted jurisdiction on 3 March, incorporated the matter into his inquiries into Plus Ultra and maintained the alert. The National Central Bureau of Interpol further requested the issue of a red notice to extend the search outside the European Union.
The warrants also affected Venezuelan businessman Rodolfo Reyes, considered by the investigation to be the real shareholder in Plus Ultra; his wife, María Aurora López; and Peruvian financier Luis Felipe Baca Arbulu. Reyes and López remain wanted. Baca, who was likewise among those responsible for the financial structure, returned to Spain from Aruba.
The case and the link to Zapatero
The case is investigating former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for his possible involvement in a network of bribery and money laundering linked to the airline. Zapatero gave testimony as an investigated person before the National Audience in June. Known documents do not record a direct relationship between the former Prime Minister and Verhoeven; the connection between the two is via Plus Ultra, Rodolfo Reyes and the movements recorded around the public rescue.
Verhoeven appears as an essential piece in the financing of the company during the hardest months of the pandemic. Plus Ultra, on the brink of collapse and without access to bank credit, turned to several companies linked to him before receiving the 53 million euros approved by the Government through the State Industrial Holdings Company (SEPI).
The network of companies and the loans
Among these companies were Wailea Investment, Allpa Wira Trading and Valerian Corporation, with accounts spread across the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Gibraltar, Montenegro and the island of Mauritius. Anti-Corruption suspects that the loans allowed funds of illicit origin to be introduced into the company, repatriated to the financial structure after the airline received the public money.
Wailea lent 500,000 dollars to the airline in October 2020 at an annual interest rate of 9 per cent. Plus Ultra returned approximately 522,380 dollars on 25 March 2021. Allpa Wira contributed another 500,000 dollars and received 519,983 in May, following several failed attempts at transfer to accounts in Switzerland and Montenegro.
Valerian granted two loans of 450,000 euros in January and February 2021. Both were repatriated on 24 March by means of two payments totalling 920,870 euros, destined for an account in Gibraltar. The Swiss investigation discovered that a personal account of Verhoeven at Migros Bank had received funds from Valerian accounts in Gibraltar and Montenegro.
The investigators also located a central account of Allpa Wira at Mbaer Merchant Bank that had received 2.23 million Swiss francs from Mauritius and more than 14 million euros from accounts opened in Malaysia. According to judicial documentation, that money was subsequently distributed among companies and deposits linked to Verhoeven through a complex succession of transfers.
Swiss investigation and search at Mallorca
The Geneva Public Prosecutor's Office had been investigating Verhoeven since October 2021 for possible money laundering operations related to Venezuelan public funds, the CLAP food distribution programmes, PDVSA and international transactions involving gold. The suspicion is that the network hindered the traceability of money through payments for alleged consultancy services, steel purchases and dealings in gold or other metals.
The Swiss lead resulted in October 2024 in a search of Verhoeven's home in Mallorca. The UDEF searched it in compliance with a letters rogatory and seized documents and electronic devices sent to Geneva. Spanish courts subsequently requested a copy of that material to search for references to Plus Ultra, Wailea, Allpa Wira and Valerian.
Former airline officials have argued that the loans were genuine and essential to keep the company alive until the rescue arrived. Julio Martínez Sola and Roberto Roselli maintained that it was Rodolfo Reyes who obtained the financing and secured the Dutch financier's signature, with whom they denied having maintained any other relationship.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)