Robbery of businessmen with mask commissions in Madrid

Prosecutors have taken to court two businessmen who took advantage of the worst of the pandemic to do business and collect commission from Madrid’s public line. Alberto Luceno Seron and Luis Medina Abascal, according to an anti-corruption complaint, approached the Madrid City Council at the hands of a relative of the mayor, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, and offered to bring medical supplies from China. Behind it, however, stood the usual menu of corrupt cases: inflated prices and millionaire commissions. Prosecutors suspect that as soon as they had the money in the accounts, they started laundering it: including spending more than four million dollars on expensive cars and watches, even a house and a yacht.

The anti-corruption prosecutor’s complaint explains how the loot was obtained. Luceno received a total of $ 5.1 million in commission: three million came from a contract to purchase FFP2 masks, the other two from the purchase of antigen tests. In addition, he hid part of these commissions from his partner. For his part, the son of the late Duke of Feria has raised a million dollars from a mask contract. The robbery was no bigger because the council demanded a refund of the amount paid in the 2.5 million gloves and had to waive the commissions.

In some cases, this meant that 60% to 80% of the amount paid by Madrid residents through the municipal funeral home went into the pockets of these two businessmen. And as is clear from the complaint, both quickly began to launder and spend the booty on massive purchases of expensive items, with difficult explanations.

Luis Medina on a yacht

As the anti-corruption found out, Luis Medina spent almost all of the money he received as a commission to pay the councils masks at a gold price. A total of € 725,515 million entered from his Malaysian bank account in Madrid. Of this amount, a total of 325,515 euros was transferred from the Madrid public line to the yacht.

The son of the late Duke of Feria bought an Eage 44, which he named “Feria”. The boat, more than 13 meters long from the bow to the girder, was registered in the Gibraltar Yacht Register on behalf of the Gibraltar Company. The company, according to Anti-Corruption, “whose partners and real owners are brothers XXX and Luis Ramon Medina Abascal.” Medina has only one brother: Raphael Medina Abascal, the current Duke of Feria.

Prosecutors suspect that he bought the yacht to launder some of the money, but the yacht “Feria” soon went to sea with Luis Medina Abascal. This was reflected, for example, in the magazine HOLA! In April 2021, he explained how he had traveled to Sotogrand, Campo de Gibraltar, to train for the “next regatta”. The publication already explained that he bought the boat with his half-brother and that he was wearing Luis Medina ” look “More relaxed and ‘ordinary’ than we are used to: barefoot, wearing a T-shirt and wrapped in jeans.” The same magazine explained in another previous issue that his brother Raphael had fulfilled “one of his big dreams” by opening a boat.

This was not the only benefit that Luis Medina Abascal gave her million dollars from the purchase of the masks during the worst of the first wave. The Anti-Corruption Prosecution also reflects the purchase of two bonds at a cost of 200,000 euros each. One of them was called “Phoenix MSCI World”, which according to Deutsche Bank delivers quarterly profit coupons, and the other was “Global Dividend 10-50”, which according to the same bank pays a coupon of 50 GEL more in the short run. % Of initial investment.

Cars, watches, house and hotel

Alberto Lucienio Seroni, who has extensive experience in the business world, paid more money and even hid part of his commissions from his partner. The former director of the European School of Management and Business in Madrid managed to spend € 3,272,548.01 out of the more than $ 5 million he received from selling masks and antibody tests on commission. In his case, the distribution of profits was much more varied and as luxurious as that of a descendant of the Duke of Feria.

The prosecution investigation has concluded that all these luxury items, totaling more than four million euros, were paid from the public line of the Madrid City Council, presumably for laundering. The capital they have acquired. To seize all this money, the anti-corruption complaint explained that they inflated the price of masks, antibody tests and nitrile gloves brought from China through a Malaysian company.

At a time when public administrations were desperately entering the international market to obtain material that would protect health workers, police and firefighters, along with a group of other key personnel, Medina and Luceno managed to pay the city council5. $ 1 million more for material that, moreover, was not always good. Nitrile gloves were not what the Madrid City Council demanded and some tests, a quarter of which were unusable and almost half of which were of “questionable efficacy”.