This morning the Guardia Civil arrested Álvaro Romillo, the entrepreneur who donated 100,000 euros to Alvise Pérez to allegedly finance the European election campaign of the leader of Se Acabó La Fiesta. The arrest, anticipated by the art eldiario.es and confirmed by EL PAÍS in several sources, occurred in the framework of an investigation that is taking place at the National Court for a cryptocurrency scam and in which Romillo was summoned as an investigator this Friday to testify accused of a scam of more than 260 million euros that affects more than 3,000 people.
National Court judge José Luis Calama ordered his arrest to prevent a possible escape after receiving a report from the Central Operations Unit (UCO) detailing the corporate network Romillo has abroad, according to sources close to the investigation. The investigations made it possible to ascertain that 29 million euros passed through an account in Singapore presumably linked to the entrepreneur, part of which was transferred to a Thai company. Calama has been conducting an investigation into Romillo for more than a year, he said Luis Cryptospainand the platform he owned under the name Madeira Invest Club (MIC), whose surprising failure affected thousands of people.
The investigation began operating in early 2023 as an investment “private club” that offered high returns with investments in real estate, luxury vehicles, pleasure boats, whiskey, gold, cryptocurrencies and digital artworks that it promised to buy back within a certain period with pre-agreed benefits. However, the armed institute’s investigations indicate that behind the Madeira Invest Club there was in fact no real economic activity and it was just a pyramid scheme in which the profits of the first investors were paid with contributions from the victims who added. The UCO uncovered a large corporate network and bank accounts spread across Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Albania, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Malaysia, Belgium, Thailand and Hong Kong. It is precisely this scaffolding abroad that precipitated Romillo’s arrest this Thursday.
Judge Calama had not yet sued the businessman for these facts and this Friday was the first time he went before the National Court after his indictment for the crimes of fraud, money laundering and criminal organization. The judge focused first and foremost on the part of the investigation that concerned the financing of Alvise Pérez’s party. In this case Romillo confessed to having handed over the money in cash to the MEP and provided messages proving the payment, so the magistrate took the matter to the Supreme Court so that the case against the MEP official could continue there. Once the matter was resolved, Calama investigated the failure of the investment platform.
This Friday the defendants would have had the opportunity to request provisional arrest for him, but everything came to a head because the judge received a series of police reports showing the discovery of accounts abroad. Legal sources explain that, given the evidence that he has assets outside Spain, the chances of his escape have increased and, therefore, Calama agreed to his arrest to bring him to justice.
On August 11, Romillo reported the attack on his home with gunshots under strange conditions. According to what he told the police, five hooded men entered his house in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid) while he and his partner were sleeping and took 200,000 euros in cash, 500,000 watches and jewellery. They were also forced to transfer 1.2 million euros in cryptocurrencies to the attackers’ accounts. He reported it and the case was prosecuted.
