The National Police have thwarted the dream that the founder of the Leonese financial conglomerate Herrero Brigantina, the 45-year-old economist Juan González, had in 2011. An operation against the heart of this business ring has confirmed that the investment ideas of this alleged visionary, who promised returns of up to 50% in ten years, were a trick, as revealed by an investigation by EL PAÍS in 2023.
The National Police reported on Tuesday the arrest of nine people – eight in Ponferrada (León) and one in Madrid – connected to this “macro pyramid scam” that has looted the savings of tens of thousands of investors in Spain. SMEs, self-employed workers and families who deposited between 5,000 and two million euros per client to achieve impossible returns. The fraud amounts to up to 70 million, according to the investigations. A cold shower for a corporation that was considering going public and was ranked 149th out of the 1,000 fastest-growing European companies in 2021, according to the Financial Times.
Investigators have established that Herrero Brigantina used a network of 21 companies in Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom to move its funds. The firm falsified public deeds of capital increases for its network to reinforce its image of solvency.
Under the direction of the National Court, the investigations have led to the seizure of nine properties and the freezing of 540,000 euros in bank accounts and one million in a SICAV (Sociedad de Inversión de Capital Variable).
Agents have also blocked the founder’s accounts, companies and assets of the network outside Spain.
Possible seizure of assets
After becoming aware of the investigations, González Herrero “began to get rid of” his properties – according to the agents – and began a plan to get his assets out of Spain. He fled to Colombia, where his partner is from. And, in December 2023, he was arrested at Madrid-Barajas Airport when he returned from the Latin American country.
The agents took away the company founder’s passport to avoid the risk of flight and searched his home in Ponferrada, where they discovered watches, luxury handbags, insurance policies and high-end cars. The investigation’s theory is that part of the savers’ money ended up in the economist’s pocket.
After examining 130 bank accounts, investigators have confirmed that this conglomerate, which offered investment solutions, pension plans, insurance, mortgages and loans, built a Ponzi scheme, similar to the one that the financier Bernard Madoff ran on Wall Street until 2008. New investors paid for the profits of the first to land in the supposedly successful structure.
Along with the payment of interest, the investors’ capital was allocated to campaigns of marketingmaintaining the commercial network of thirty offices in Spain – the firm claimed without proof to have branches in London, Paris, Miami, Amsterdam and Hong Kong – and paying for the luxury train for its top management. Yachts, high-end vehicles, five-star hotels…
To gain the trust of investors, the firm sold its financial products with the logo of the insurance companies Axa, Plus Ultra and Generali, which it used without permission. With this trick, Herrero Brigantina, a firm that claimed to have invoiced 56.4 million in 2022, placed its flagship product on the market, the unit linked (life insurance whose premium is invested in a portfolio of funds). The trick to avoid raising suspicions was to sign a private service provision contract with the clients. A formula that was off the radar of regulators such as the Bank of Spain and the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). Although in theory, this investment was supervised by the Directorate General of Insurance (Ministry of Economy), the agency never approved the financial solution, according to the Police.
To unravel the rise and fall of Herrero Brigantina, we must travel to March 2023. EL PAÍS publishes an investigation that reveals the black holes of an apparently spotless firm. Complaints from savers about late payments and non-payments begin to increase. Complaints for fraud surround the corporation.
The Economic and Tax Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police is taking over the investigation into fraud. The agents are taking statements from victims and former employees. Five months have passed since this newspaper’s investigation. Then, the National Court intervenes, taking on two complaints involving 82 investors from 14 provinces, and centralising an investigation with international tentacles.
The investigations are looking into why Herrero Brigantina used the endorsement and logos of the insurance companies Axa, Plus, Ultra and Generali to promote its investment products without permission and how it raised at least more than 40 million euros between 2021 and 2022 with this trick. They are also trying to clarify the shady transactions to move 25 million in shares, the role of the government supervisor or why the founder hid his income.
Before the collapse, before the accumulation of complaints, Herrero planned for success. He organised American-style conventions and boasted of benefiting from a silent legion of clients who recommended his products through word of mouth from family and friends. An army of salespeople – most of them from the insurance, banking and medical sectors – used their contact lists to sell the products. “Certainty in doubt” was the motto of the company that Juan González Herrero created in 2011.
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