The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama, responsible for Madeira casecontinued Alvaro Romillocreator of the Madeira Invest Club (MIC) investment platform. And nine other people, including members of the businessman’s family.
Calama attributes the crimes of aggravated fraud and criminal organization to the ten people questioned and imposed a bail on them, which they must pay jointly, of 247 million euros.
Inside Madeira casethe judge investigated the alleged fraud committed by Romillo and the rest of the defendants, amounting to approximately 185 million euros. 3,062 investors were harmed.
Last year, Romillo gave 100,000 euros to agitator Alvise Pérez to finance his campaign for the European elections, in which he won a seat in the European Parliament.
The resolution currently prosecuting the businessman indicates that Romillo, who used the pseudonym CryptoSpain, “driven by an aim of illicit profit, conceived and launched a structured and hierarchical criminal organization, of which he assumed the management and direction” and with which, allegedly, he committed the fraud.
This organization was composed of the businessman himself and Borja Lara Varas, Alejandro Pérez Frías, Pedro Estanislao Bris García, Domingo Romillo Iriarte; Juan Carlos Romillo Iriarte; Mihaela Munteanu Manole, David Alcázar Jiménez, Rosa María de Olivera de Castro, Yolanda Nieto Galera and Juan José Moreno Ruiz.
“All of them, under the instructions of their leader Romillo,” he adds, “performed specific functions aimed at attracting victims, managing the digital platform used as an instrument of fraud and hiding the profits obtained.”
The aim of the criminal organization, according to what it claims, consisted of the systematic appropriation of sums received from third parties for alleged investments announced through the digital portal Madeirainvest.com, which presented itself as a safe and profitable investment platform. Through this website, fictitious financial products were offered in order to attract potential investors. Among these products or “works,” as they called them, were watches, vehicles, real estate, startups, gold and other precious metals.
Investors, confident in the appearance of legality and solvency conveyed by the platform, in which they managed to ensure a minimum return of 20 percent, made financial contributions that were diverted by members of the organization to accounts controlled by Romillo and his collaborators, without any real investment activity.
Romillo, the order emphasizes, exercised direct control over operations, coordinating fundraising, manipulation of information offered on the platform and distribution of illicit profits among members of the organization.
As a result of these actions, 3,062 investors of the MadeiraInvest Club were harmed, suffering economic losses derived from the fraudulent behavior manifested by Romillo and other members of the criminal organization and which were quantified at 185,511,947.76 euros.
To achieve his goal, Romillo had different communication channels such as TikTok or Yotube through which he made videos related to financial products, cryptocurrencies, tax evasion or national and international tax aspects. As part of its marketing strategy, it has also organized mass events with the presence of personalities such as MEP Alvise Pérez.
The judge attributes to those investigated the crime of mass fraud because they created a pyramid-type business in which the money collected through the platform was not used to purchase the good for which it was supposed to be intended, “but immediately channeled all the capital received to other companies designed with the aim of diverting it, that is, the proposed business model was based on fraud.” In this way, the order emphasizes, “the behavior of Álvaro Romillo Castillo was deceptive and his intention with regard to the capital transferred by the buyers was, from the beginning, simple recruitment”.
The other crime that the judge attributes to the defendants, that of criminal organization, is confirmed by the existence of a network formed around the figure of Romillo, who heads the organization and of which the others are part, carrying out different operational tasks necessary for the operation of the scheme that they launched to accumulate enormous sums of money under the promise of obtaining great profitability.
In his order, Calama requires the ten defendants to pay a joint bond of 247,349,230 euros in order to face possible financial responsibilities that they would have to face if they were found guilty. This amount results from adding one third to the amount allegedly defrauded, as provided by law.
At the same time, the court opens a separate investigation to investigate the misappropriation of the defrauded sums and their subsequent laundering, since this part of the procedure is at an emerging stage due to its greater complexity and the need to resort to the issuance of letters rogatory and European investigation orders.
The resolution takes into account the corporate framework designed and led by Romillo with 52 companies, 106 bank accounts, real estate and vessels, all spread across at least 15 jurisdictions.
In his indictment, the magistrate agrees to keep Romillo in temporary prison because of the risk of escape and recidivism.
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