MADRID, March 14 — Police have arrested the chief executive officer of Banca Privada d’Andorra as investigations continue into alleged money laundering at the Andorran lender.
Police detained CEO Joan Pau Miquel Prats late yesterday, an official for the Andorran police force, who asked not to be identified by name in line with its policy, said by phone today.
Andorra’s bank regulator took over the running of BPA on Tuesday after the US Treasury said the lender was a “primary money-laundering concern”.
BPA, based in the tiny country between France and Spain, processed hundreds of millions of dollars through four US correspondent banks in transactions that bore signs of being done for illicit purposes, the Treasury said.
A spokeswoman in Madrid for Tinkle, a corporate communications firm representing BPA, had no immediate comment on Miquel’s arrest when contacted by phone today.
On Thursday, Spain’s central bank assigned administrators to run BPA’s Spanish unit Banco de Madrid. BPA was engaged in activities involving proceeds from criminal groups in Russia and China and with Venezuelan money launderers, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCen, a unit of the US Treasury Department. — Bloomberg
