The Judiciary Police announced this Thursday, December 11, the arrest of a central figure in financial crime in Spain. According to a statement, he is a 55-year-old foreign citizen who has a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish judicial authorities to serve an eight-year prison sentence for crimes of embezzlement and forgery.
According to information from the PJ, this man, a former General Director of the Óscar Niemeyer International Cultural Center, in Avilés (Spain), convicted of committing several crimes related to the mismanagement of that institution, had been on the run since the end of 2023, following a decision by the Spanish Supreme Court, which considered him a central figure in an illicit financial scheme known as the “Niemeyer Case”.
Second Spanish newspaper El País, it is about Natalio Grueso.
The arrest took place on the 4th, in Olhão. The detainee was present at the Évora Court of Appeal, awaiting further extradition proceedings.
According to the PJ, in Spain, the court proved that between 2006 and 2011 the target diverted funds from the institution for his own benefit, as well as that of his family and friends, resorting, among other methods, to issuing and using false documents, with the aim of giving him the appearance of legality.