New unexpected script twist in the investigation into alleged irregularities in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) during the presidency of Luis Rubiales. The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has sent a report to the head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 4 of Majadahonda (Madrid), Delia Rodrigo, in which she warns that the 65,367 crypto assetsUSDT (currently worth 62,800 euros) supposedly owned by businessman and former soccer player Francisco Javier Martín Alcaide, alias Babya friend and partner of the former president of the federation, who had ordered to be blocked, had disappeared when investigators were trying to transfer them to a secure account to ensure that no one could divert them. The police document indicates four Colombian citizens as allegedly involved in the maneuver and highlights the connection of one of them with Nene himself, whom he holds ultimately responsible for it. The UCO has asked the judge to issue an international search and arrest warrant against the four suspects.
In the report, to which Morning Express has had access, the Civil Guard recalls that this line of investigation began on March 20, the same day that the Civil Guard made the first seven arrests and searched the RFEF headquarters in the dubbed Operation Brodie. That day, the agents received a call from CVB, who claimed that he had made investments in crypto assets to a businessman from Granada who could allegedly be involved in the dismantled plot. He was referring to Nene, a former player who never went beyond the third step of Spanish football, became a hotel businessman after leaving the ball and who maintained a close friendship with Rubiales. In fact, he was the person who was with the former president of the federation in the Dominican Republic when those first arrests occurred.
The investigation revealed that, indeed, in August 2022, Nené invested, along with two other people, 60,000 euros in crypto assets and that these funds were transferred shortly before the start of Operation Brodie to a virtual wallet under his control with the alleged intention then of withdraw them in the Dominican Republic, where he had business. In fact, in one of the cell phones seized on Nene, the agents found two “seed phrases” (private keys of 12 words necessary to be able to carry out transactions from an address with crypto assets) that, according to the investigations, are linked to 140 addresses where supposedly they could hide more funds in virtual currencies. With this data, the UCO asked the cryptocurrency company to temporarily block this money, a measure that Judge Rodrigo supported in October with the indication that these funds be transferred to the Office of Asset Recovery and Management (ORGA), an organization created by the Ministry of Justice at the end of 2015 to administer the seizure of assets blocked and seized from convicted people.
However, the new report from the Civil Guard, dated December 16, details that, when they were going to transfer the funds on November 11, they could not because someone had taken advantage of the company that was guarding them and had unlocked them so that investigators could carry out a search. first test transfer with 10 cryptocurrencies to obtain those funds by transferring them to two wallets in separate movements made just one minute apart. The agents then began to trace the path followed by the crypto assets, which were jumping from one virtual wallet or another, and to identify the people who had allegedly made these successive transfers. The investigations have made it possible to determine that Tito Alejandro A, P., Juan Camilo PA, Carlos Mario AC and Ismael José S., all of them of Colombian nationality, allegedly participated in the maneuver.
The UCO focuses on the last one, Ismael José S., of whom they highlight that “he would have had a greater participation in the withdrawal of the funds” and was the person who “has control” of the virtual wallet where they were sent in the first place. the more than 65,000 USDT before being transferred again to others. The agents highlight that, when the initial blocking of the crypto assets occurred, this person contacted them by email and exchanged, without identifying himself, several messages to ask why they had been seized by the courts and assure them that he was “the owner.” ” of the address of the wallet where they were hosted, in addition to having the seed phrase to manage the funds.
In the last of these messages, dated November 23, Ismael José S. insisted on his concern about the fact that these funds were withdrawn “without having previously communicated it to him” and insisted that a client of his was “the absolute owner” of the funds. themselves and, therefore, put this in a copy in the message. The agents verified that the address that this person put in the email was, precisely, one of those owned by Nene, Rubiales’ partner. “Through this last email, S. confirmed that Javier [Martín] He was the owner of the funds stored in the wallet, the agents highlight. And they conclude, therefore, that the partner of the former president of the RFEF “would have used, at least,” the four identified Colombian citizens “to prevent” the cryptocurrencies from coming under judicial control, as the magistrate had ordered.
