Plus Ultra financier denies laundering, claims loan given unaware of later state rescue

In a detailed hearing before Judge José Luis Calama at the Audiencia Nacional, Dutch businessman Simon Leendert Verhoeven denied any role in laundering money for Plus Ultra, describing his companies as legitimate investment and trading entities, including a gold-trading arm that obtains metal from a Niger bank and an Abu Dhabi jeweler. He explained that he extended a loan to the airline after being approached by co-investigated Luis Felipe Baca, attracted by the interest terms, and maintained he was unaware that the carrier would later obtain a government injection.

Verhoeven argued that the signature appearing on the loan agreement was not his and that the contracts were signed by various investment vehicles based in different jurisdictions. Prosecutors in Switzerland and France have previously identified him as a presumed leader of a financial branch under probe. The Spanish judge indicated that after the state aid was provided, Plus Ultra prioritized repaying Verhoeven’s debt, a move suspected of mobilising capital. The investigation also encompasses former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whom the magistrate alleges led a network that earned illegal commissions by mediating with the administration on behalf of certain firms, chiefly Plus Ultra.