Over the weekend, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that Jorge Messi, the father of Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi, has been under investigation for months by Spanish authorities for laundering money belonging to Colombian drug cartels. The paper wrote that the elder Messi may have taken a part in a scheme involving his son's charity organization, the Lionel Messi Foundation, in which events sponsored by the organization were used to help launder millions of euros for drug traffickers. Following those investigations, rival El País launched its own and discovered that Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez might have been used to do the same thing.
They revealed that three of the 29 performances included in the singer's farewell world tour were held in Spain on June 15, 16 and 17, 2012, and might have been used to launder illicit money. According to information provided by El País, "the investigation on laundering drug money through different events began in Spain focusing on music concerts, specifically, after Mexican singer Vicente Fernández's performances. The information acquired by the Civil Guard comes from Colombia, and points out that some narcs of the South American country were able to launder five million euros in Fernandez's farewell tour."
The paper, however, clarifies that the investigation doesn't imply Vicente Fernández himself, but there are documents that involve Colombian Andrés Barco as the point person who organized the tour along drug dealers from his country through his company Total Conciertos, that doesn't exist anymore. The investigation also reveals that in the three performances that took place in Barcelona, Madrid and Murcia, they could've laundered around 300 thousand euros. According to a witness cited by El País, organizers "opened the venue's doors and let a lot of people in for free, although they pretended to have sold many tickets, that, in fact, were paid for by the organization with alleged money from the narcs."
According to a source, the tour was paid for "outside of Spain and with drug money." The unidentified witness added that when the concert was over, organizers would certify much higher income than the real numbers, and would remit them to Colombia from Spanish banks as the concert's earnings. Although Vicente Fernández is not directly involved, there are no records of any payments for the Mexican singer in Spain.
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