Elected last June, far-right MEP Alvise Pérez is accused of having received 100,000 euros in person to promote his candidacy in Brussels.
Barely elected, Spanish MEP Alvise Pérez is under investigation for illegal financing after the breakthrough of his party “Se Acabó la Fiesta”(The party is over) during the European elections on June 9. The Spanish Supreme Court prosecutor’s office launched an investigation after finding evidence of a crime in a cash collection in the amount of 100,000 euros.
According to the first investigations, it is thecryptocurrency entrepreneur Álvaro Romillo who would have handed over the 100,000 euros in person to the future MP on May 27, a few days before the elections. Spanish media report that Alvise Pérez contacted the entrepreneur in March with the aim of creating a digital wallet which would allow it to receive funds “anonymous and encrypted”.
The MEP admitted on Telegram to having received this sum “as a freelancer without invoice”, which would force him to pay a fine of 25% of the total. In his defense, he specified that the entrepreneur “would have accepted that the public prosecutor does not request pre-trial detention for fraud” in exchange for an accusation against him in connection with the financing of his electoral campaign.
According to the businessman, who provided documents demonstrating the fluidity of contacts between the two men, Alvise Pérez told him that he needed 300,000 to 360,000 euros to enter the race in Brussels. In the messages exchanged and published by the Spanish press, Alvise requested funds which were not controllable by the Court of Auditors.
The Spanish law on the financing of political parties prohibits the same person from making donations of more than 50,000 euros per year. In addition, it requires that all donations above 25,000 euros be declared to the Court of Auditors.
The complaint filed last week by the Association of Cryptocurrency Users against Madeira Invest Clubthe company of Álvaro Romillo, which was suddenly closedwould have been the trigger for Romillo’s subsequent complaint against the MEP.