The Economic and Fiscal Crime Division of the Spanish Police (UDEF) has announced that between 2012 and 2015 a media company belonging to Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the Podemos Party received more than nine million euros from Iran through other companies, as reported by the newspaper El Mundo.
Evidence gathered by the Police and Anti-money laundering Committee indicates that the 16 companies suspected of money laundering injected a total of 9.3 million euro of illicit Iranian money into the left-wing politician’s company.
According to El Mundo, informed sources have stated that these companies made at least 67 suspicious transfers to Iglesias’ company, 360 Global Media, through intermediary banks. The majority of the transfers were made to a company which produces programmes for HispanTV, the Spanish-language satellite channel of Iran’s state-run broadcaster IRIB. Hispan TV is run by Iranian citizen Mahmoud Alizadeh Azimi and its programs mainly target Latin American states.
Iglesias, Spain’s Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, and leader of Podemos, hosted Fort Apache, a talk show, on Hispan TV from January 2013 to 2019. The program was produced by his company 360 Global Media and CMI.
The Podemos party has been under investigation from the Spanish Police and anti money-laundering authorities since 2016.
