Plus Ultra financier Simon Leendert Verhoeven denies laundering the 53 million euro rescue

Denial before the judge

On Friday, 16 October, Simon Leendert Verhoeven, the Dutch financier described as the financial brain of the Plus Ultra case, gave his statement as an investigated person before Judge José Luis Calama at the Audiencia Nacional. He told the court he did not know the airline had received the 53 million euro rescue granted by the Spanish government during the pandemic, and he denied laundering that money. He said he lent the airline 2.1 million euros and denied any irregularities in his contracts with the company.

He described himself as majority shareholder of three firms, one in Gibraltar and two in the United Kingdom, dealing in trading, precious metals and real estate. He argued that the gold bars, watches and jewellery police seized at his Mallorca home came from legal activity. That house in Santa María de Camí had been searched in October 2024 under a Swiss letters rogatory request, when investigators found two gold bars, twelve luxury watches and numerous jewels.

Contracts and signatures

Verhoeven attributes the five loan contracts he signed with the airline to a Peruvian businessman, identified by ABC and EL MUNDO as Luis Felipe Baca, who had called him to offer a loan at high interest. He does not recognise his signature on the contracts Plus Ultra presented in the case, but he acknowledged his signature on a separate contract package under investigation in Switzerland. According to ABC, citing legal sources, he said the Spanish-side documents contained details of the rescue, while the papers he handled in Switzerland and France did not. He denied knowing Julio Martínez Martínez, described as Zapatero's business partner, former Plus Ultra president Julio Martínez Sola and former executive Rodolfo Reyes. He acknowledged that his companies had dealings with Venezuelan firms but could not name them.

The prosecution's case

Judge Calama places former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the apex of an alleged influence network meant to secure the 53 million euro state loan Plus Ultra obtained in 2021. Verhoeven is considered the brain behind the laundering offence in the same case. The judge's order says Reyes presumably ordered that some of the amounts received from the Spanish government be transferred to three instrumental companies managed by Verhoeven: Valerian Corporation, Allpa Wira Trading AG and Wailea Investment. El Periódico, citing the judge's investigation, reports that Valerian's Gibraltar accounts hid transfers to the airline totalling 900,000 dollars, justified as investment contracts. Former chief executive Roberto Roselli told the judge that when he asked Reyes about Verhoeven, Reyes pointed to a Google and World-Check search, which Roselli described as implicit instructions to accept Valerian's payments. EL MUNDO reports that prosecutors accuse Verhoeven of providing funds from criminal activity in Venezuela, repaid through loans drawn from the public rescue.

Arrest, custody and release

Sources differ on the date of his arrest in Germany. El Confidencial gives 21 August at Frankfurt airport, while Europa Press and EL MUNDO place it in September. After his handover to Spain he was held in provisional detention at Soto del Real prison. Brought before the judge at the end of September, he declined to testify and asked for time to prepare his statement. The judge then released him but withdrew his passport.