The Las Palmas Court will rule by means of a decision after Christmas on whether it will be responsible for judging the so-called 'Kokorev case' that affects Sands Beach, for the alleged laundering of more than 100 million euros from the illegal trafficking of arms from Equatorial Guinea, or transfer that responsibility to the National Court, if it understands that it is its responsibility.
The presiding magistrate of the court, Emilio Moya, has announced this deadline at the conclusion of the hearing held this Thursday by the Sixth Section of the Las Palmas Court, in which the lawyers of Vladimir Kokorev, the main defendant, and his wife, Julia Maleeva, have requested the transfer to the National Court, while the lawyer defending their son, Igor, has opposed it.
The case also includes three other defendants, the lawyer Juan Arencibia, whom the accusations consider the architect of the 45 companies that the Kokorev family allegedly created in Las Palmas to launder money, and two of the sisters of this lawyer, who allegedly acted as frontmen, although their defenses have not commented on the transfer of the case.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Javier Ródenas, and the prosecution exercised by the Spanish Association for Human Rights, which was the one that reported the case in 2009, oppose the transfer of the case to Madrid, understanding that the money laundering crimes that are going to be judged have occurred in the province of Las Palmas and, therefore, it is the responsibility of its territorial Court.
The two accusations demand sentences of between eight and five years in prison for the accused for money laundering crimes and fines of up to 240 million euros, in the case of Vladimir Kokorev, whom they attribute to having generated an illicit wealth of at least 120 million euros, between the years 1999 and 2014 from the illicit trade of military defense and dual-use material that he sold to Equatorial Guinea, through different companies, one of them with headquarters in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The lawyer of the main defendant, Vladimir Kokorev, who has not been able to attend the trial for health reasons, due to the illness he has suffered for years, has stated that in an "unequivocal" way the case must be judged by the National Court", due to the existing connection with the one that is investigating against his client for illegal arms trafficking.
According to the lawyer José Antonio Choclán, contradictory resolutions may also occur if the case is maintained in two judicial venues, so he understands that the appropriate thing would be to wait for the investigation for illegal arms trafficking to conclude and, even, to be judged as a separate piece.
He has stressed that, until 2011, the Kokorevs did not acquire Spanish nationality, so the crime attributed to them would have been committed by foreign citizens and outside of Spain.
He has also remarked that the funds came from abroad, the alleged laundering would also have been done outside and only one company, Kalunga Company SA, was created in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
It was to that company that 26 million dollars were transferred from a current account of the Riggs bank in New York (USA) of the Treasury of the Government of Equatorial Guinea to an account of the Banco de Santander of the capital of Gran Canaria, an operation that, in the end, would give rise to this criminal case.
Choclán has also argued that new facts have occurred in the investigation of the case of the National Court, from where the one investigated by Court number 5 of Las Palmas for money laundering started, since initially a crime of embezzlement of public funds was attributed, so he has questioned whether the reason for the extradition granted by Panama is valid to judge the Kokorev family.
The indictment describes crimes committed abroad, the lawyer has added, who therefore maintains that the chamber must abstain in favor of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court.
The lawyer of Igor Kokorev, Álvaro Campanario, has maintained that the case must continue in the Las Palmas Court, which is where it originates, since it was to Gran Canaria where the 26 million dollars were transferred, and he also maintains that they cannot be judged for facts different from those that authorized them to be investigated when Panama granted their extradition and the case should not be delayed further.
The second extradition granted is for them to be judged for illegal arms trafficking, not for the crime of money laundering from arms trafficking, he has stressed.
The prosecutor has explained to the court that he opposes them being judged in the National Court, has criticized the "deceptive" way in which Igor Kokorev's lawyer exposes his position, and has stressed that the crimes object of his accusation for money laundering that he typifies have occurred in the scope of the province of Las Palmas, although others happened abroad.
Likewise, he has stressed that the crimes that motivated the extradition of the Kokorev family have not changed and maintains the money laundering and the "ideation" of the network of the 47 companies they created is from the defendant Juan Arencibia, and the corporate contracts also take place in this province.
He has rejected that the fact that the Kokorevs did not have Spanish nationality until 2011 does not exempt them from being judged, while he has pointed out that they precisely moved to Panama because they were being investigated and therefore had to be extradited.
The lawyer of the Spanish Association for Human Rights, Álvaro Fernández, has pointed out that the criterion on the competence of this case was already resolved in 2019, and has shared the prosecutor's position.
