José Luis Moreno defends himself before the judge: "I don't have figureheads because I can't stand them"

José Luis Moreno, upon his arrival at the National Court, this Thursday.Ángel Díaz Briñas (Europa Press)

Fifteen minutes before his appointment with the magistrate, the Spanish ventriloquist, businessman, producer and humorist José Luis Moreno has landed "calm" at the National Court to testify as a defendant in the judicial investigations that keep him on target.

In

, he is attributed the leadership of an alleged fraud plot and millionaire swindle of banking entities and private investors.

“I trust justice”, he has said before the cameras stationed at the doors of the building, where as of 10:00 he has begun to testify before Judge Ismael Moreno.

An interrogation that, according to legal sources, has been used to deny any illegality: “I am not the boss of anything [...] I don't have figureheads because I can't stand them”.

The producer thus breaks his silence in the case.

In the summer, after his arrest and when the investigation was secret, he refused to testify.

Now, after a few months, Moreno changes his strategy and offers his version.

"I have not done anything to hide money," he assured the judge, according to sources present at the interrogation: "I do not have millions abroad," he insisted.

The researchers describe a plot divided into two legs.

The first, headed by Moreno and his partner Antonio Aguilera, specialized since 2017 in "fraud and fraud."

According to police sources, these were dedicated to creating companies to offer projects "of all kinds that never materialized."

"Moreno was aware of the false identity that Aguilera used to obtain fraudulent financing from banking entities through the companies that they directed and managed between the two," the Civil Guard points out in a report: "Moreno has received money from shell companies that form the framework.

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Both allegedly supported each other later in the network, with Carlos Brambilla at the helm, an alleged drug trafficker who would have dedicated himself to laundering the money they obtained.

According to investigators, Argentine businessman Alejandro Roemmers is one of his victims.

The agents maintain that Moreno "appropriated" half of the 32 million that he transferred to shoot a television series,

, about the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, which was never made.

“It is a hoax about the fraud with [the series], because the chapters are in the National Court”, the ventriloquist defended himself this Thursday before the judge.

He has also pulled from the past and insisted that he has more than 3,000 productions and 150 million in contracts behind him.

However, to reinforce his thesis, the Civil Guard explains in a report that the income that Moreno received legally was "insufficient to cover the expenses" of his high lifestyle: "mortgage payments,

and

of vehicles of high-end and luxury travel”.

"He acknowledges in his writings that he has been exclusively dedicated to the production of

for three years , without receiving any salary," adds the armed institute.

In his defense, the humorist has alleged that, currently, his sisters "pay him day by day".

After more than three hours of declaration within the National Court, Moreno has offered a brief statement before the cameras at the exit:

"He looks excited," a journalist told him.

"I am," replied the defendant.

—I like Spain, I like the law and I like what I have experienced there.

"Are you still defending your innocence?"

—Yes [...] Do I look like a capo?

The personal note on the “bite”

The Civil Guard stands out in a report from last September, where it analyzes the writings of José Luis Moreno's personal agendas, which include two notes from the businessman where he uses the word "bite".

On one occasion, next to the name of Fernando López Puig, "TVE content director", according to the armed institute.

“Close director contract and bite”, noted the television producer.

"Everyone knows the expression 'bite', making a clear reference to the money or benefit obtained from an individual by an official or employee, with abuse of the powers of his position," the researchers emphasize.

Regarding that expression, Moreno assured this Thursday that he was not referring to illegal commissions, but that

It was the name of another series that he was preparing and that was about a man who became rich based on bites, according to legal sources present at the interrogation.