The criminal chamber of Spain's National Audience has confirmed the prosecution of Gonzalo Boye, lawyer to Carles Puigdemont and other pro-independence politicians, for money laundering within a criminal organization involved in drug trafficking, in parallel with the forgery of an official document in the case against José Ramón Prado Bugallo, alias Sito Miñanco, in which Miñanco is charged with alleged participation in two operations to import almost four tonnes of cocaine into Spain and for the creation of a criminal network to launder the money obtained from the drug. Today's development is the latest move in a to-and-fro process which in April prompted four Catalan legal associations to lay a complaint against the judge, María Tardón, for perversion of the course of justice.
Judge Tardón today prosecuted Boye for his alleged involvement in one of the operations carried out by the organization led by Sito Miñanco aimed at recovering 889,620 euros that had been confiscated by police at Barajas airport, hidden in a suitcase belonging to one of the members of the organization. Boye and two other lawyers are being prosecuted for their involvement in drafting documents and purchase contracts for bills of exchange to recover money confiscated by police. In the case, the judge has prosecuted 45 individuals and 5 legal entities.
In the ruling, the chamber rejected Boye's appeal and explained that in this procedural phase the guilt or innocence of the defendant is not assessed, but rather, whether there are indications that justify his standing trial. The court indicated that the various reports by specialist fraud and money laundering police reconstruct the commercial process of the bills of exchange issued as collateral for mortgage loans. "And specifically how the aforementioned bills were later used by the criminal network to facilitate activities aimed at recovering the money confiscated at Barajas following the instructions of Prat Bugallo, allegedly conveyed by Garcia Arango and directed by the appellant Boye Tuset".
The judge added that by bringing this evidence and these reports together with surveillance, monitoring and the contacts maintained between the defendants, it can be inferred that there is, as the indictment maintains, "concurrence of rational evidence to link Boye with the actions and the offences for which he is now being prosecuted".
The court concluded that there are indications of his alleged involvement in the manipulation of contracts of sale and issue of bills of exchange to a value of 889,620 euros.
According to the judge, there is evidence of the simulated nature and lack of real content in various documents - loan and foreign exchange documents and purchase contracts for bills of exchange - provided by Boye in the proceedings as evidence to justify the origin of the 889,620 euros that had been previously confiscated at Barajas airport from five of those prosecuted in this case