The Man Behind the Money in Marbella
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By h.b. - Mar 31, 2006 - 4:35 PM
Juan Antonio Roca Nicolás has the honour of being the first person to be ordered to prison following arrests against corruption in Marbella this week

A source close to the investigation now underway in Marbella following what is now a total of 23 arrests in the ‘Malaya’ case, has said that we could be witness to an operation which moves triple the money seen in the money laundering case ‘Ballena Blanca’ also under investigation in the town. The same source is quoted in El Pais newspaper as saying that the wealth of an entire town has been siphoned off for the benefit of a few.

Interior Minister, José Antonio Alonso, said on Thursday that 2.4 billion € worth of assets had been intervened by the police, but police forces have commented that the real amount is far greater than that. For example the sum does not include amounts found in 80 bank accounts which have been embargoed in the case.

One man’s name comes up again and again in – that of Juan Antonio Roca Nicolás. He’s a 53 year old businessman who was born in Cartagena, Murcia, and who arrived in Marbella in 1986 as some of his companies were found guilty of making fraudulent declarations of bankruptcy.

Since the arrival of Jesús Gil y Gil in power, Juan Antonio Roca, always discretely in the background, more than anyone else has controlled the real estate development in the town.

He’s already accused in the case known as ‘Saqueo’ which is still to come to court. He was actually held in prison for a week on remand in that case back in 2002. In it he is accused with six other collaborators of the late Jesús Gil y Gil on charges of the misuse of pubic funds and of defrauding the tax authorities of 30 million € by issuing facturas in the names of companies which did not in fact actually exist.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that now Juan Antonio Roca’s fortune is incalculable. A vast network of companies has been established, with other people always acting as the figure head.

It’s estimated that of the 23 arrests so far, nine of the people head Roca companies. Police have raided property owned by him in San Pedro Alcántara, Jimena de la Frontera, Ayamonte in Huelva, Madrid and Murcia. They have found items of incalculable value. More than 200 paintings of tremendous worth, including eight by Joan Miró, and in Murcia a chapel complete with silver virgins and a golden chalice.

Roca likes to pilot helicopters, and of course some of the properties have their own heliport. In Jimena de la Frontera the local council took action earlier this month against an excess construction on his finca, including the construction of two illegal heliports. Other properties have stable complexes with thoroughbred Spanish horses, and even private bull rings and a stud to breed fighting bulls.

The Los Alcázares urbanisation in Murcia has also been linked by police to Sñr Roca. Police think here other front men have been laundering some of the money obtained in Marbella with the One Properties Real Estate company and local man Ramón Ernesto Celdrán at the centre of police attention.

Police are now trying to establish where all this wealth has come from and they believe it can only be from one place - the estimated 600 real estate deals which Roca has authorised in the six years he has controlled town planning in Marbella.

In the current case, Juan Antonio Roca, faces more charges than anyone else arrested so far – he has the full house…
Money laundering, defrauding Hacienda tax authorities, fraud, perversion of the course of justice, awarding of favours, mis-use of public funds and even of illegally altering the price of items put out to tender or auction.
Mayor Marisol Yagüe and others accused including councillors, lawyers, and businessmen face only half that list.

Juan Antonio Roca is right at the centre now, as he was also in the times of Jesús Gil y Gil and Julian Muñoz.
It’s been estimated that ten percent of the money invested in real estate by foreigners in Andalucia comes from financial paradises.

This afternoon Juan Antonio Roca has been ordered to prison and refused bail by judge Miguel Angel Torres. His freedom this time is not for sale.

Mayor, Marisol Yagüe, will learn where she will sleep tonight after she declares later this afternoon, but the prosecutor is calling for the same fate.

It appears that, after years of inactivity, the Spanish justice system has now acted firmly and the people who are alleged to have personally benefited from such money are to finally discover that their days in paradise have ended, once and for all.

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