Spanish MEP Alvise Pérez admitted on September 26 he had not invoiced, nor paid VAT, for a €100,000 cash payment he received on May 27 from cryptocurrency entrepreneur Álvaro Romillo.
The MEP from the Se Acabó La Fiesta party said he was “guilty as a self-employed person” for not handling the payment properly.
The news website Eldiario.es has claimed Pérez received the €100,000 to promote Romillo’s cryptocurrency company, which has recently gone bankrupt, at public events. Eldiario.es also alleged that Pérez asked to receive the donation via a digital wallet, to avoid scrutiny by the Court of Auditors and Treasury.
Spanish prosecutors are examining whether Pérez used the money to fund campaign costs. Spain’s law prohibits political parties from receiving donations of more than €50,000 from a single person, or from entities without legal personality. Doing so could lead to being charged with a crime of illegal financing.
The case had been referred to Spain’s high court because of Pérez’s status as an MEP, which protects him with political immunity.
Pérez has downplayed the accusation, describing it as only a matter of “fee collection without VAT”, and saying he acted to save money and not to profit from his public activity.
He also expressed confidence he would get off “as always”, claiming that all was at stake was an administrative issue with the tax authorities.
“Have I charged for my work without an invoice? Yes, that’s the truth,” Pérez said in a video posted on his social media accounts.
The Attorney General’s Office brought the charges against the MEP before the Supreme Court as part of its investigation of Madeira Invest, a now collapsed cryptocurrency fund which critics have described as a pyramid scheme.
It said it would investigate Pérez for his relationship with the Madeira Invest Club, and whether he had committed a crime of illegal financing.
The head of Madeira Invest, Álvaro Romillo, was currently unavailable in Dubai, according to Pérez himself.
Pérez claimed Romillo left Spain ‘with the government’s permission’, suggesting his departure from the country was allowed in exchange for key information for the investigation.
Pérez diverted donations he received for his election campaign to opaque accounts, using cryptocurrencies, according to the newspaper El Confidencial.
Romillo, the creator of the financial scheme, filed the complaint now in the hands of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Romillo claimed to have given €100,000 to Pérez in cash and provided documentation to back up his statements, said Eldiario.es.
This investigation came only two months after Pérez took office as an MEP, which gave him political immunity to reveal compromising information about politicians, judges ,and businessmen.
The Madeira Invest Club was also accused of an alleged crime of fraud before the Audiencia Nacional, a Spanish high court which has already opened proceedings and requested a report from the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Depending on the court’s decision, there could be two parallel investigations: one in the Audiencia Nacional for fraud, and another in the Supreme Court on possible illegal financing by Alvise Pérez.
Pérez did not reply to request for comment.
New Spanish party Se Acabó la Fiesta (SALF) has scored a major victory in the European Parliament elections by winning three of Spain’s allotted seats. https://t.co/nME1KiBtgH
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 13, 2024
