He is either the luckiest man alive or - just perhaps - a fraudster with a few inconvenient secrets to hide. But Juan Antonio Roca has told a disbelieving judge that he gained his personal fortune of €2.4bn (£1.7bn) by winning the lottery - 80 times.
Mr Roca was appearing before a court to explain allegations that the former head of urban planning in Marbella had been the brains behind a €22m (£15m) bribery and embezzlement ring. He is alleged to have controlled a scam in which councillors took backhanders from developers and in return passed illegal building permissions.
Hundreds of homes, some owned by Britons could now face demolition.
Yesterday, Mr Roca explained how a former jobless labourer came to be a millionaire in 15 years. He said: "In the past 15 years, I've won about 50 prizes in lotteries. And throughout my whole life I have won about 80 major prizes."
But prosecutors allege he was not in fact the luckiest man alive and that he used a well-worn trick to launder large sums of ill-gotten cash in order, so he thought, not to raise suspicion. They say Mr Roca had fraudulently bought lottery tickets with dirty cash and then claimed the prizes.
No comments:
Post a Comment