Beer makers ordered to post bond of 764 million euros

A High Court judge has ordered the former chairman of the Spanish beer maker Damm, Demetrio Carceller Coll, and his son and current chairman Demetrio Carceller Arce to deposit a combined total of 764 million euros as a civil bond for possible charges and fines they face in connection with an alleged case of tax fraud and money laundering.

Carceller Coll was asked to deposit 511.1 million euros and his son 253.6 million within 10 days to cover possible penalties for 13 cases of tax fraud and one of money laundering. The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s office last month asked the judge to impose a bond of only 72 million, the alleged amount of tax that had been defrauded. The state attorney is also seeking a jail term of 48 years and six months for Carceller Coll and 14 years for Carceller Arce.

Two advisers of the father and son, José Luis Serrano Florez and Gabriel Ignacio Petrus Labayen, are also required to deposit bond amounts of 269.5 and 402.8 million euros respectively.

The alleged fraud supposedly took place in the period 2001-2009. The High Court in 2011 shelved a case against Carceller Coll after finding no indication of tax evasion. However, Judge Pablo Ruz decided to reopen the case. Tax Agency officials alleged Carceller Coll may have failed to pay 42.3 million euros in personal income tax in the period and 29.7 million in wealth tax.

The prosecutor’s office in October claimed that Carceller Coll has hidden the full extent of his income and wealth “at least since 1990” through a complex arrangement in which he claimed alternatively to be resident in Portugal and Britain. It also claimed that Carceller Coll and his wife Carmen took pains to cover their tracks and left it up to their son to sign any business or financial deals.