Hidden Assets: The Marsans scandal

The surviving business partner who ran what was once Spain's largest company employer has been arrested. Gerardo Díaz Ferrán formerly headed up Grupo Marsans along with Gonzalo Pascual, who died six months ago, and was also formerly the president of the CEOE, the Spanish equivalent of the CBI. He was detained on Monday, accused of money laundering and non-declaration of assets.

Díaz Ferrán's arrest is the latest twist in the ongoing investigation of the bankrupted Marsans, and Díaz Ferrán is the latest Spanish über-businessman with a strong Mallorcan connection to be collared by the police. Of others, José María Ruiz-Mateos, owner of another failed company, Nueva Rumasa, is accused of diverting money raised by mortgaging hotels in the Hotasa chain, of which there are several in Mallorca. Nueva Rumasa, in its original incarnation before it was expropriated by the Spanish government in 1983 because of its massive debts, was Spain's biggest company, so in that previous incarnation it was as important a business as Marsans was prior to its collapse in 2010.

Díaz Ferrán and Ruiz-Mateos are both high-profile businesspeople, though arguably neither is as high profile as Iñaki Urdangarin, the King's son-in-law, if only because neither of them has royal connections. Urdangarin is the third party in what is a pretty unholy businessperson trinity, even if the money involved in the case against Urdangarin is small beer when compared with that which is involved with both Marsans and Nueva Rumasa.

One aspect of the case against Urdangarin that has been investigated is the alleged channelling of money offshore. Díaz Ferrán faces a similar investigation, and the timing of his arrest is probably no coincidence as it has followed swiftly on the period of the amnesty for declaring previously undeclared assets having ended.

The investigation of Díaz Ferrán has been prompted in part because of complaints lodged by the likes of the Meliá hotel group and the Orizonia travel company. These complaints extend beyond Díaz Ferrán and include Ángel de Cabo, who has also been arrested. De Cabo is significant in all this, and especially so for Mallorca. Not only has he acquired some Nueva Rumasa businesses, his investment vehicle, Posibilitum, acquired Marsans businesses, one of them being Hotetur, of which Alcúdia's huge Bellevue hotel complex is a part. The complainants refer to the "alleged sale" for 600 million euros of Marsans to Posibilitum just prior to Marsans being declared bankrupt; this purchase has alternatively been described as having been made with a "nominal sum".

De Cabo, according to the police, acted as a sort of front man for Díaz Ferrán, and received a significant sum for doing so. The thrust of charges is that assets were syphoned off and hidden to avoid demands against Marsans that exceeded 400 million euros.

To say that the whole affair is complicated would be an understatement, and it is one that highlights links and relationships at the grandest corporate level which impact on Mallorca and Spain's tourism industry. One such link is that between Marsans and Orizonia. The latter is owed money by Marsans. The guarantee against this money was Bellevue, and the future management of Bellevue has been (and still is, as far as I am aware) the subject of a separate judicial examination to decide the fate of Hotetur. A proposal to split the operation of Bellevue between Posibilitum's management company and Orizonia's Luabay hotel division appears to still be up in the air. It is likely to be even further up in the air now that De Cabo has been arrested, now that questions about Posibilitum's acquisition of Marsans are being asked and now that, to make matters even more complicated, the Barceló hotel group has offered to buy Orizonia, subject to agreement by the Spanish competition commission. The uncertainty that has surrounded Bellevue throughout its 40 years of existence just refuses to go away.

Coming on top of political corruption cases and of the dire economic situation, the cases against the unholy businessperson trinity are all damaging: Ruiz-Mateos, because he has long sailed close to the wind; Urdangarin, because of his connections; and now Díaz Ferrán. Of the three, his case may prove to be the most damaging for what remains of Spain's reputation. Former president of the Spanish business confederation, former owner of a massive company at the heart of the tourism industry; it doesn't get much worse.

Though the Díaz Ferrán case is not exclusively a Mallorcan issue, the affair does have strong Mallorcan links. Political corruption had come to be pretty much expected in Mallorca. Now there is business scandal as well, and you wonder how much more there might be to come.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.