The Andorra Hustle | La Estafa De Andorra

American documentary, “The Andorra Hustle” (La Estafa de Andorra) was directed by Eric Merola. The movie discloses several cases of corruption, with the consequent bad image for the principality. What is told is an overview from the plundering of Jews fleeing Nazism and passing through Andorra to reach Spain and leave for the United States during World War II, to the scandal of the BPA bank, linked to “patriotic police”.

The material was part of the Amazon Prime platform, but suddenly, it disappeared from the library. Creators decided to upload the documentary La Estafa de Andorra to YouTube – you can watch it here.

Contents

The Andorra Hustle: Storyline

Andorra, a small, independent country located between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains, with a total population of around 80,000 people. Principality found itself at the center of one of the most intricate and outrageous bank robberies in modern history: on March 10, 2015, Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA), a private bank in Andorra, was shut down by the Spanish, US, and Andorran governments in Spain’s efforts to destroy the Catalan Independence Movement, leaving dozens of innocent civilians facing prison sentences for money laundering crimes that never existed, and many innocent families having their life savings stolen.

The incentive for the Spanish government was to destroy BPA as part of the ongoing “Operation Catalonia” in Spain, a state-sponsored covert operation to undermine the progress of Catalonia’s efforts to secede from Spain due to generations of humanitarian and economic repression Madrid has inflicted on Catalonia. The US incentive was to protect Spain’s interests as its ally. Andorra’s incentive appears to be purely economic on behalf of its leadership.

BPA was targeted because of the assumption that members of the Catalan top leadership (President Jordi Pujol, President Artur Mas, and Vice President Oriol Junqueras) had their money deposited in BPA. The Spanish police believed that destroying the bank accounts of the Catalan leaders would help win their war against Catalonia.

A little-known fact presented in “The Andorra Hustle”: The US FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement and Anti-Money Laundering Network of the US Treasury Department) has the power to close any bank in the world with a single press release called “Section 311”, part of the US Patriot Act. It acts, without requiring any evidence of wrongdoing, under the pretext of “protecting the global financial system”. The Spanish police submitted false evidence of money laundering to U.S. FinCEN, resulting in the U.S. issuing a “Section 311” notice against BPA. In the weeks that followed, U.S. private equity firm J.C. Flowers bought recently destroyed BPA at an 86% discount, relabeled later to Vall Banc.

Most reports on the closure of BPA reported that Banca Privada d’Andorra was shut down due to money laundering activity related to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, the Venezuelan government, and Russian and Chinese mafias. This documentary examines money laundering charges forensically, demonstrating that according to the creators, BPA was categorically innocent of these crimes. The Andorra Hustle gives the audience a well-researched narrative that contradicts all news coverage of these events.

Hectic Output of the Documentary

The documentary was produced between March 2019 and August 2020 and premiered on Thursday, August 27, 2020, via the Amazon Prime platform. The American director Eric Merola reported on Saturday 29 that his work had disappeared from the platform.

The documentary had been circulating on networks for some time and had been controversial in Andorra. Coinciding with its premiere, some media called it a “Partial Documentary” that did not provide any evidence of opposition to the conspiracy theory. Faced with what he considered a serious violation, by Amazon Prime Video, of good contractual faith, the American director decided to upload the documentary to YouTube.

The Andorra Hustle: Interviews

 

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