Back in time in the Cellex affair. The judge who is investigating whether the executors of the great Catalan patron Pere Mir disposed of his inheritance for their own benefit instead of donating it to science, held a new hearing this Friday on precautionary measures after the Barcelona court canceled the first intervention of the foundations in which the businessman had his fortune.
The prosecution requested, once again, that the accused executors (Jorge S., former president of the Cellex foundation, the lawyer Juan Francisco C., and the oncologist and former doctor of the philanthropist Josep Tabernero, director of the Vall d’Hebron Oncology Institute), be removed from the management of the foundations and that the Protectorat de Fundacions de Catalunya, dependent on the Generalitat, be responsible.
According to judicial sources, during the hearing the defense of the accused once again defended that they had not committed any embezzlement and criticized the intervention of the Generalitat.
Last October, the Barcelona court ruled that the investigating judge had violated the right of defense of the accused by not giving them time to prepare for the judicial hearing in which the judicial administration of the Cellex foundation was agreed in April, in which the Ministry of Justice intervened, by order of the judge, in the face of the alleged embezzlement.
This Friday took place a new hearing, just like the one that took place in April after a report from the Mossos d’Esquadra which revealed several irregularities of the executors, as well as a network of companies in tax havens that the great Catalan patron weaved during his lifetime (Mir was praised by politicians of all stripes for his donations to scientific centers).
As reported by the Public Ministry, the prosecutor Álvaro de Juan, in addition to the intervention, requested the prohibition of the transfer of several properties belonging to the accused, as well as the judicial deposit and preventive seizure of various valuables.
The objective, explains the prosecution in a press release, is to “safeguard the assets of foundations and companies, and to guarantee the effectiveness of the financial responsibility” that those indicted may have in the event of conviction.
Mir, who had lived in Switzerland for decades, died without issue in 2017 and said his entire estate should be donated to patronage and social assistance in Catalonia. Before his death, contributions to the Cellex foundation were made through donations from one of his companies based in Luxembourg.
A detailed report by the Mossos as part of the investigation into Mir’s executors for their alleged appropriation of the chemical entrepreneur’s inheritance revealed that money from the sale of Derivados Forestales, the company in which Mir built his fortune, was placed in two foundations in Panama, as well as all of the businessman’s real estate assets in Catalonia (which regional police failed to quantify).
According to the judge, the prosecutor and the Mossos, Jorge S. led the operation not to transfer all the assets of the deceased (died without descendants) in the Panamanian companies to the Spanish non-profit foundations Cellex and Mir-Puig and to dedicate them to scientific research, as was Mir’s last will and testament.
The lawyer was able to do this, the investigators point out, thanks to his “effective control” of the entire Mir-Puig corporate network on both sides of the Atlantic. Rather, the executors’ defense argues that only a portion of Mir’s assets should be devoted to philanthropy.
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