Former President of Catalonia Jordi Pujol has lost the first battle in his fight to put an end to a judicial investigation into the origin of his fortune.
The Provincial Court upheld the ruling of a Magistrates Court in Barcelona to initiate legal proceedings against Pujol, his wife Marta Ferrusola and their seven children. Furthermore, it dismissed an appeal lodged by Pujol, who said he was the victim of an unfounded accusation.
The Provincial Court’s writ is based on a statement in which the former Catalan President admitted that his family kept assets in Andorra valued at approximately €3.4 million hidden from the Spanish Tax Collector. According to the statement, the money came from an inheritance left by Pujol’s father, Florenci Pujol, who died in 1980, to his daughter-in-law and his seven grandchildren.
The information provided by Pujol regarding his fortune in Andorra is clearly incomplete, since it does not give any concrete information concerning its origin, amount or about the transactions conducted over almost 35 years, said the judges.
On the contrary, the former Catalan President’s partial confession is reason enough to justify the initiation of proceedings that seek to determine the origin and development of his assets, said the court.
The acknowledgment that the assets were kept hidden for more than 30 years can be considered to be a revealing piece of information, which leads to believe that there may be circumstantial evidence, though provisional, of at least one offense against the Spanish Tax Office, added the judges.
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