Nueva Rumasa investors ask for search of owner's mansion

Investors in the financially tangled Nueva Rumasa conglomerate asked the High Court on Wednesday to allow them to search the home of José María Ruiz-Mateos, the controversial patriarch of the family which runs the holding company.

The petition came one day after High Court Judge Pablo Ruz subpoenaed Ruiz-Mateos, his wife, six sons and a nephew to appear in court on October 18-19. Ruz has opened the inquiry after 63 investors said they hold some 9.44 million euros in promissory notes.

Anti-corruption prosecutors, who are helping in the investigation, have identified a total of 1,017 investors who pumped 90.49 million euros into Ruiz-Mateos' companies. The family filed for bankruptcy protection in February in an effort to allow Nueva Rumasa to pay off its multi-million-euro debts. Despite warnings from the National Securities Commission (CNMV), the company attracted investors via the issue of vague promissory notes.

Ruiz-Mateos announced in 2009 that the bonds he would issue outside the control of the CNMV would yield returns of up to 10 percent, at a time when the banks were offering just three percent on savings.

The plaintiffs told Judge Ruz they want a search of Ruiz-Mateos' mansion in Somosaguas, on the outskirts of Madrid, to "take inventory of all the information that may exist in computers, papers and documents that deal with the investors." The 80-year-old Ruiz Mateos, who, along with his family members, is the target of Ruz's investigation, has also been ordered by another Madrid court to raise the amount of bond he set aside to meet his debts from 13 million to 30 million euros.

Ruiz-Mateos' original Rumasa group was expropriated by the state in the 1980s after an immense hole was discovered in its balance sheet.