BPA Launches Website on 11th Anniversary of Regulatory Intervention Amid Pujol Trial Testimony

A new website, [www.bpanews.com](http://www.bpanews.com), has launched on the 11th anniversary of Banca Privada d’Andorra's (BPA) regulatory intervention, compiling over 1,000 links to Andorran and Spanish media reports, analyses, and documents related to the case and its Spanish subsidiary Banco Madrid.

The platform emerged as Spain’s National Court trial into Jordi Pujol Ferrusola’s finances spotlighted testimony from key BPA figures. On Thursday, former BPA CEO Joan Pau Miquel appeared in person in Madrid, recounting 2014 pressure from Spanish police to disclose banking details on Catalan leaders. He confirmed the Pujol family maintained accounts at BPA from 2010 to 2014, routed through Panamanian foundations for privacy—structures open to legal requests, though none were recorded at the time. Miquel stressed cash deposits were routine at BPA, with no preferential handling for the Pujols.

Miquel detailed a visit from Celestino Barroso, Spain’s Interior Ministry attaché at the Andorran embassy from 2014 to 2017, who approached after contacting BPA owner Higini Cierco. Alerted by Cierco to the unusual request, Miquel secretly recorded Barroso, who warned of repercussions for refusing cooperation, citing leverage through Sepblac probes into BPA subsidiaries Banco Madrid and Interdin, alongside potential US intervention that would “kill the bank.” Miquel later met National Police internal affairs head Marcelino Martín Blas three times that June at Madrid’s Villamagna hotel, prior to “the famous Camarga wedding.” Martín Blas reportedly declared Spain was “at war with Catalan nationalism” and demanded data on the Pujol, Mas, and Junqueras families. Miquel declined to share confidential records, providing only a public dossier on corruption allegations. Days afterward, *El Mundo* published front-page details of Pujol transfers at BPA, drawn from another institution.

Prosecutor Fernando Bermejo questioned why Miquel did not report the pressure earlier; Miquel replied it was not immediately apparent as coercion. Cierco, testifying remotely that afternoon from Andorra’s courts, described the episode as a “bad horror movie” and “Dantesque.” He recalled Barroso’s June 2-3 visit to his family firm, Indústries Montanya, reiterating threats of a negative Sepblac outcome and US takeover unless BPA assisted. Cierco directed Barroso to Miquel, who recorded the exchange, and noted all forewarned consequences materialized by the March 10, 2015 intervention—including a judicial data extraction at the Spanish embassy on March 24 without initial permission, later documented in a police report. Cierco reported the threats to Andorran authorities post-intervention and denied BPA leaked the *El Mundo* information.

Barroso testified remotely later Thursday, denying threats and attributing his outreach to Barcelona police commissioner Pedro Esteban—a central figure in “Operació Catalunya.” He claimed he merely relayed that cooperation with “a certain Félix” (later identified as Martín Blas) could aid BPA amid its challenges, insisting he never met Martín Blas or knew of subsequent events, including the embassy data copy or involvement by Bonifacio Díez Sevillano.

Other Andorran witnesses testified remotely, with a former BPA secretary excused. The 2015 intervention, framed initially as safeguarding Andorra’s financial system from money laundering, triggered raids and inflicted heavy losses on BPA executives, clients, owners, and suppliers.