Spanish fugitive banker caught in Africa

A BANKER from Barcelona Eduardo Arxé was released on parole in 2015 despite being accused of multi-million euro theft.

He was allegedly involved in the ‘ERE’ case that obtained millions of euros from the Junta de Andalucia and in a fraud involving the bankruptcy of Eurobank which cost 68,000 investors €221 million with €20 million unaccounted for.

He was originally jailed in 2013 whilst awaiting trial for corruption, fraud, money laundering, falsification and use of documents and an offence against the Treasury.

Although he had surrendered his Spanish passport and was instructed not to leave the country, he had married a Bolivian woman in 2005 and managed to obtain a Bolivian passport in a slightly different name so fled the country.

It also transpired that he had managed to obtain two other Bolivian and one new Spanish passport so was able to travel the world, according to the National Police without being stopped, despite being one of Spain’s most wanted men.

Investigations however suggested that he had ended up in Ouagadougou, capital of Western African country Burkina Faso and with the assistance of the Spanish Embassy in that country, Interpol and Local Police, he was arrested and is to be extradited back to Spain.

Reports also suggest that prior to his arrest he was just about to marry a local woman in order to obtain a passport from Burkina Faso as well.