ROLL CALL

Incredible list of senior establishment figures top the list of investors in Globix ‘Ponzi scheme’

SEVERAL senior politicians, a leader of the opposition and a former Chief Minister are among an eye-opening list of Gibraltar’s key power brokers who allegedly invested in a fraudulent crypto exchange.

The extraordinary roll call of Globix punters, seen by the Olive Press, also includes leaders in business and finance, as well as the boss of a top legal firm.

They are just some of the hundreds of people in Gibraltar, Spain and the UK that handed over a collective €26 million to Globix boss Damian Carreras to invest.

A total of 136 investors have so far made applications to the liquidators attempting to unravel the complex web behind the Gib-based firm.

A number of them handed over millions to the business, which was administered by Miracle World Ventures, registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Sole shareholder Carreras and his associate, tech officer Pavel Sidorov, are wanted over suspicions they syphoned millions from crypto wallets

THE Costa del Sol and Costa de la Luz have been singled out as key black spots for the ‘chronic cancer’ of environmental destruction.

An environmental charity has slammed both coastlines for the continuing urban ‘over-development’ they face.

Ecologistas en Accion is particularly concerned about the two hotspots of Tarifa and Vejer de la Frontera.

The green group says both face ‘uncontrolled illegal construction’ with an alarming amount of further planned development, as revealed by the Olive Press last year.

Much of it, around Atlanterra, and close to Tarifa’s virgin Valdevaqueros beach, has already been approved by the local town hall.

The number of illegal homes around El Palmar, meanwhile, is leading to the discharge of untreated sewage into the sea.

The green group has also handed a black flags to the town halls along the entire length of the

By Walter Finch

after the exchange had locked inves tors out of their funds in early 2022. But the company was only put into voluntary liquidation one year later, on March 10, 2023, exactly seven days after the Olive Press first broke the story. As reported last issue, Carreras, 39, failed show up at a Gibraltar court hearing to answer questions about his company’s missing millions.

Questions

Gibraltar Supreme Court heard that at least €1.3 million was spent during this period on lavish spending sprees at upmarket shops in nearby Marbella.

The year-long gap between alarm bells ringing and formal action being taken raises questions as to why more was not done to pursue Carreras, given the influence of the establishment figures involved.

Most investors we have spoken to cit-

Black marks

Costa del Sol, for its continual overdevelopment.

“The Malaga coastline has excessive light pollution generated by industry and mass tourism,” added a spokesman.

The three areas are among 48 beaches singled out for black marks around the country this year.

An alarming ten are in Andalucia, with Huelva city particularly fragile after a damaging oil spill in February, while nearby La Antilla beach gets one for overdevelopment.

Meanwhile ‘recognitions’ were handed to Almeria for its continuing scandal surrounding the illegal 411-room Algarrobico hotel.

Granada comes under attack meanwhile, for urban abuses and pollution at La Herradura

Continues on Page 2 month at the beginning. An apparent Ponzi scheme, Carreras lured in later investors by showing them the ‘VIP list’ of some of the best-known establishment figures in Gibraltar already allegedly invested. The Olive Press understands the majority, at least a dozen of them lawyers, have chosen to stay in the background.

“They would prefer to sit on their hands and write off their money rather than publicly admit they were conned in a clear Ponzi scheme,” one senior legal source explained this week.

“The reputational damage is anything but good,” he added. “After all, these are the very people who are often paid to advise on multi-million pound deals and help to create laws and bring in regulations in areas like crypto-currencies.” The saga meanwhile did not help Gibraltar get off the Financial Action Task Force’s grey-list.

Kidnap

The Rock was placed on the list for countries with inadequate anti-money laundering and terrorist funding controls in June last year, and it will stay there for at least another year, after a review last week.

More alarming, perhaps, are the implications that Globix became a repository for ‘a lot of drug lords and other kinds of black money.’

“There were some questionable transactions going through various accounts,” said one source with deep access to the case.

Carreras claims to have been receiving death threats and is worried for last summer Sidorov and his wife, who we are not naming, were kidnapped from their home, near Alicante, at gunpoint, over the missing millions. He wrote to liquidator Adrian Hyde in an email that it would be ‘foolish to compromise my location’ as he tried to dodge face-to-face meetings to answer questions.

Career launch

GIBRALTAR’S Youth Service and HR experts CIPD launched a website called careers.gi to help young people explore their job options.

Pedal Ready

THE Ministry of Transport relaunched its Pedal Ready programme with a one-day cycling proficiency course for Year 6 children at Bayside school in mid-August.

EU lose

DEPUTY chief minister

Joseph Garcia talked to the Gibraltar branch of the OBE association about the work the government had done to secure a possible future EU treaty.

Cycling frenzy

A TOTAL of 25 members of British Forces Gibraltar and their families took part in a 24-hour relay round the Rock to raise money for the welfare of serving and retired military personnel.

ITALIAN and Spanish police are investigating if a man who allegedly murdered two women in Torremolinos is responsible for other killings back home.

Marco Gaio Romeo, of Nettuno (Italy), was arrested for stabbing his 28-year-old ex Paula to death at her apartment in May. Police later realised that a previous part- ner of the killer had disappeared in 2014. He then told them the body of Albanian Sibora Gagani was walled up in his old apartment.

Now Italian and Spanish authorities are investigating to see if the 45-year-old is linked to missing women in the Italian area of Nettuno.