New impetus to the investigation into alleged irregularities in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) during the presidency of Luis Rubiales. The judicial authorities of the Dominican Republic have referred to the Spanish judge Delia Rodrigo, who is investigating the call Brodie caseabundant bank documentation that reveals that Rubiales, his partner and former soccer player Francisco Javier Martín Alcaide, Baby; his wife, Purificación Rufino; an alleged front man, Israel Dorado, and the commercial company Conecta 17 Consulting, all of them investigated, have financial products in their names in five banking entities in the Caribbean country, according to the documentation provided by Cadena Ser and to which EL PAÍS has had access.
The information is the response of the Dominican authorities to the rogatory commission (request for judicial assistance) that, on March 27, the Spanish judge made due to the existence of “rational indications” that Rubiales and his partner could have properties and assets monetary assets on the island both in his name and as front men, and that these had been acquired with funds that came from the alleged commissions collected for the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. On the island, Martín Alcaide already had two hotels in operation in the Punta Cana area and was in a real estate project to build 60 luxury apartments. In addition, the Civil Guard detected during the investigations that another of those investigated for whom banking information has been requested, Israel Dorado, transported cash to the Caribbean island, evading the control of the Spanish authorities.
The documentation now incorporated into the case is complementary to the judicial collaboration of the Dominican authorities, which already allowed agents from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard to travel to the island on April 1 to search the homes where Rubiales and Nene resided there, as well as to locate two high-end vehicles in the name of each of them with which they traveled in this country. In its response, the Specialized Anti-Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prosecutor’s Office (a body with similar functions to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Spain) details the information provided by dozens of banks, exchange agents, credit corporations and insurance entities on the island about the presence in his client portfolio of Rubiales, Nene, the other two investigated or the company under suspicion.
Five of them have given an affirmative answer, according to this documentation. These are the Reserve Bank of the Dominican Republic ―which claims to have located financial products in the name of the former president of the RFEF and the company Conecta 17 Consulting―, the Banco Popular Dominicano ―of Martín Alcaide―, the Scotiabank ―in the name of the five ―, Banco Múltiple Santa Cruz ―of Israel Dorado, among them three accounts about which the Spanish judge expressly asked ― and Vimenca ―again in the name of Rubiales’ partner―. However, the Dominican authorities do not close the door on more appearing in the future.
The Spanish judge demanded that if any financial product was located, it be blocked due to the suspicion that these funds “could have their origin in the facts investigated” in Spain. In addition, he requested that information be provided on the balance of the assets at the time of the blockade, as well as all the movements registered in them since 2018. That was the year in which Rubiales, together with the former FC soccer player, undertook Barcelona Gerard Piqué, the implementation of the new format for the Super Cup that led the following year to the agreement for the competition’s matches to be held in Saudi Arabia in exchange for 40 million euros per year for the Federation and four million more commission for Piqué’s own company Kosmos.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Brodie – in reference to the English engineer John Brodie, who at the end of the 19th century devised nets for soccer goals – has ramifications in two other countries. On the one hand, the judge included in the order in which, in April, she imposed precautionary measures on Rubiales, her suspicion that the alleged commissions that he allegedly could have received for the millionaire Super Cup contract may not have been in money, but in “species”. Specifically, in “the transfer of land” in Saudi Arabia “for the subsequent management of hotel businesses.” On the other hand, it has sent two letters rogatory to the Andorran authorities to gather information on possible bank accounts in the name of Piqué and nine companies linked to him in the Principality. The judge investigates whether Piqué delivered, through them, “economic gifts” to the former president of the federation.
