The Government allows Plus Ultra to maintain a deposit of four million in tax haven until 2028 without discounting it from the rescue

The Government allows Plus Ultra to immobilize four million euros in a tax haven until 2028 and it is not deducted from the 53 million of state aid.

This is one of the surprising conclusions of the opinion that independent experts have made to judge

who is investigating various crimes in the rescue of the airline.

In the expert report, to which EL MUNDO has had access, they assure that Plus Ultra tries to fulfill the requirement of not having been in crisis before the pandemic with the strange “participatory loan” of the Panamanian bank Panacorp. They consider it strange, because of the 6.3 million of the loan, Plus Ultra cannot use more than 4 million - "three quarters of the borrowed capital" - because it is obliged to have them deposited and "unavailable"

, a tax haven for the Tax Agency.

Indeed, such a bank appears in the contract between Panacorp and Plus Ultra - see attached extract - and the initial amount immobilized was two million, but the experts point out that there are currently more than four. Being an unavailable amount "for the entire life of the loan", the experts draw the attention of the judge that the Government should not have paid more than 49 million to the airline and provided that it had met the legal requirements, which they also openly question.

Regarding the loan, “it leads us to wonder whether,

, the existence of an amount greater than four million euros, property or ownership of the company, deposited in a bank account as guarantee of the credit right of a creditor ».

Therefore, the team of experts headed by Pedro Martín Molina concludes: «This being the case, perhaps it would also have been convenient to demand the termination of the guarantee and the release of the amounts deposited as a condition for granting the financing, thus avoiding maintaining the preference of a creditor of the company on a monetary asset of the same,

”.

Nothing of this was done by the Management Council of the Fund for Support to the Solvency of Strategic Companies accused of possible embezzlement and formed by the vice president of the State Society of Industrial Participations (Sepi),

, and various senior government officials. Sepi sources reaffirm to this newspaper that Plus Ultra meets the eligibility conditions and that the doubts will be clarified during the judicial procedure. They decline to comment on the deposit with a bank in Dominica. Plus Ultra sources also decline to comment on the deposit. The airline does admit on the loan that «the repayment term was extended, leaving the date of January 2028 as the final date for such amortization to Panacorp compared to that of 2026 initially foreseen, and a fixed interest rate of 9% was added variable interest, the accrual of which is conditional on the evolution of the company's results ”. The majority shareholder of Plus Ultra,

, also manages companies in Panacorp in connection between lender and creditor.

By extending the loan until 2028, Sepi theoretically ensures that it will collect the 53 million loaned to the airline before Panacorp, because the final term ends in 2027, but such repayment is also questioned by the experts, to be considered, as reported this Monday this newspaper, that its viability plan is "very optimistic" and with public funding "in conflict" with the law.

In addition, the experts have "more than reasonable doubts" that Plus Ultra fulfilled the key requirement: that of not being in crisis in the pandemic. They point out that under the same Royal Decree of 1996 that Plus Ultra usually clings to to defend Panacorp's support, the Panamanian participative loan can only be accepted in "its net amount". That would be just over two million when subtracting the four unavailable

In other words, the Government would have approved 53 million for Plus Ultra without fulfilling the legal conditions and also allowing the airline to keep more than four million in the Caribbean tax haven of Dominica throughout the time of the rescue.

The PP assures that it will go "until the end"

The spokesperson for the Popular Group in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, has warned this Tuesday that her training will go "until the end" with the Plus Ultra case and has assured that political responsibilities should be clarified because this "was not only the direct responsibility" of the already former Minister José Luis Ábalos.

In his opinion, there is "direct responsibility" of the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, and the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, who are "the most responsible for what happens with the Sepi."

This has been pronounced after the expert report sent to the Court of Instruction Number 15 of Madrid, in charge of the investigations of the so-called 'Plus Ultra case', includes in its conclusions "more than reasonable doubts" that the airline complied with the rescue conditions.

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