The ‘Panama Papers’ scandal has splashed Lanzarote this Wednesday. The families who own the three main hotel groups in Spain, including the Martinón family, originally from Lanzarote, appear in the documents. As revealed by the newspaper El Confidencial, the media outlet that, together with La Sexta, is breaking down and publishing in Spain the information from those more than 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the largest registrars of ‘off shore’ companies. According to El Confidencial, Enrique Martinón managed two companies in Panama, Kanland International and Cedros Business.
The latter company is controlled through MexMark GMBh, a Swiss firm owned by this family dedicated to the hotel business, especially in the Caribbean. Cedros Business has an account associated with UBS, which, according to El Confidencial's information, is the Martinón's bank in Switzerland. Enrique Martinón Armas has made statements to the newspaper about this information, assuring that Cedro "is a company with productive activity, offices and employees." As for the other company, Kanland International, El Confidencial points out that "it was born in Las Palmas, Mossack is entrusted to take it to Panama and finally it is integrated as a subsidiary of Los Geranios, a third company based in Calle Espronceda in Madrid".
According to the investigation by El Confidencial, which also publishes this Wednesday the relationship of the Escarrer and Riu families with the Panamanian firm, the link between the Martinón family and Mossack Fonseca dates back to at least 1998. It is at the end of 2011, when the family "reefs sails" in Panama. Between those two dates, a series of operations took place that are reflected in the multiple emails to which El Confidencial has had access and that reveal that it was Javier González, head of the Legal Area of the Martinón Group, who acted as an intermediary with the Panamanian lawyers.
Owners of hotels, apartments and companies in Lanzarote
The vice president of the hotel group, Fernando Arencibia, is also mentioned in those emails, who would have been the one who made initial contact with Mossack and, according to a later email, would have consulted the firm's rates for the "constitution" and "maintenance" of a company or for the "opening of a bank account". El Confidencial explains that the board of directors of Cedros "remains on the advice of Mossack, who recognizes that they are ‘nominees’", that is, "professionals whose mission is to obscure the beneficiary of the company", he explains. Regarding Kanland, the information in this newspaper indicates that at the end of 2011 the family integrates this company into Los Geranios, "outside the offshore regime" and "request retroactive changes in the documentation to adapt to the entry into force of the double taxation agreement between Spain and Panama". El Confidencial reports that Los Geranios is still active and, according to the commercial registry, has no workers. Enrique Martinón has indicated to that newspaper that neither he nor anyone in his family appears as owners in that company. However, "the Martinón Group is the only shareholder registered and it is administered by Juan Carlos Lasso Ramos, also attorney of the Martinón Group", El Confidencial points out.
This hotel group, as stated on its own website, owns hotel, industrial and real estate properties in different parts of the world. Among others, it has five-star hotels in the Dominican Republic or Mexico. Among its properties in Lanzarote are the The Volcan hotel in Playa Blanca, the Marina Rubicón marina, the Rubicón residential area, apartments in an urbanization in Matagorda, the Horinsa Group or Fotovoltaica Lanzarote.
