Rescue operation. After being exonerated on Monday due to age and health reasons, the children close ranks with Jordi Pujol i Soley. Five of them emphasized this morning in the trial ongoing at the National Court against the family that they “never” had an account in Andorra nor had any participation or benefited in any way from the grandfather’s legacy, Florenci Pujol i Brugat.
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Tuesday’s session of the trial for alleged corruption against the Pujol family saw five more of the Pujol siblings testify, following the statements yesterday of Jordi and Josep Pujol Ferrusola.
All wanted to emphasize that the grandfather’s inheritance bypassed their father, whom he saw as too obsessed with politics and the country, with the risks that could entail at the dawn of democracy.
Pujol i Soley had spent seven years in prison in the 1960s, and his father believed he had to protect the grandchildren from whatever might happen. Oriol, Marta, Mireia, Pere, and Oleguer agreed on this version.
The two eldest siblings – Jordi and Marta – learned that the grandfather was going to leave them money shortly after Franco’s death. Custody was first handled by Delfí Mateu, who had been an executive at Banca Catalana, and later by Joaquim Pujol i Figa, cousin of the former president who in 1990 took on roles in the CiU Government; he was the one who, according to the children’s account, gathered them that year and explained to all of them that they had access to that fund. Mateu died in 1993 and Pujol i Figa in 2004.
In 1992, when the youngest sibling, Oleguer, turned 18, the distribution of the legacy began, which lasted until 2004 because some of the investments managed by Jordi Pujol i Ferrusola since the early 90s were maturing.
The total amount was about 500 million pesetas at that time, which translated to about 62 million euros (at the exchange rate, about 367,000 euros) per head.
The Pujol cousins, children of Francesc Cabana and Maria Pujol, did not receive the same treatment.
Oriol Pujol, the only sibling who pursued a political career and who became a potential (political) heir of his father, is not surprised – he said this Tuesday – that the grandfather bypassed his father in the inheritance.
“My grandfather understood that it was likely that our father could not take care of us,” explains Oriol Pujol
“That clearly responds to the fear with which my grandfather lived political life, commitment, and risk.” “My grandfather understood that it was likely that our father could not take care of us,” due to ending up in prison or exile, he specified.
The rest of the siblings expressed themselves in the same sense.
Oriol Pujol explained that not even his wife knew about the large amount of money he had in Andorra until 2008, when he was forced to use it to face a personal problem.
“That forces us to do something that many couples do habitually, which is to make a will, and I tell her what I had not told her until then. I tell her that I am going to make her a participant, so that she would have access, and from then on she is also the holder of that account.”
Oriol Pujol added that a forged police report from 2017, and its publication in the newspaper El Mundo, attributed to his wife and the former president of the Generalitat Artur Mas bank accounts with eight million euros, which was proven false. It was filed without further consequences.
Marta Pujol recalled the figure of Florenci: “He was very important when Jordi and I were little, because they imprisoned my father during Franco’s dictatorship, he was a great help at that time.”
Several of the siblings explained that when the Falciani case broke out – a list of 130,000 wealthy people worldwide who had funds in tax havens – Banca Privada d’Andorra recommended they create foundations in Panama where their names would be safe from the possible curiosity of bank employees.
Oriol and Pere denied any irregularity in the granting of wind farms in Prat de Comte, Tarragona.
The first was secretary general of industry between 2000 and 2003 and the second participated in an environmental consultancy, Entorn Enginyeria i Serveis, linked to the project. “But the concession was not given by Industry, but by Environment,” Pere Pujol concluded.
After the statements of the seven Pujol siblings, the testimonies of the dozen accused businessmen began.
