Peña Nieto's lawyer bought a mega-luxury apartment at the Four Seasons in Madrid while he was being investigated for money laundering

A few steps from Puerta del Sol, one of the main squares in the center of Madrid, stands a stately building at number 14 Calle Alcalá.

The property houses the Four Seasons mega-luxury hotel and unfolds in the so-called zero kilometer of the Spanish capital.

Juan Ramón Collado, lawyer for former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), owns a 233-square-meter home with a storage room and two parking spaces on this exclusive estate, according to an EL PAÍS asset tracking.

The building is a fort of great fortunes located in the so-called Canalejas Center.

It is an elite complex that brings together seven restored historic buildings where the first hotel in Spain of the Four Seasons chain, 40

and almost two dozen restaurants come together.

From the houses, one of the most impressive areas of the old town of Madrid can be seen.

The lawyer's apartment is valued at between 4.8 and 5.8 million dollars (between 4.7 and 5.7 million euros), according to real estate sources, who estimate the average sale price when the promotion began at 4 .8 million dollars (4.7 million euros).

The apartment has all the services of the hotel.

It has a private

, laundry, butler and access to the rest area with three swimming pools, gym, spa and yoga rooms.

A uniformed concierge staffs the lobby 24 hours a day.

And the access portal to the house adjoins the Hermès store on one of the ground floors of the Four Seasons.

Living room of one of the homes in Centro Canalejas.

The interior design is by Luis Bustamante.

The sale of the luxury development to which the Collado property belongs was completed in December 2020, according to the report for this last year of the company promoting the work, Centro Canalejas Madrid SLU.

And the lawyer was arrested in Mexico in July 2019 for organized crime and money laundering.

Six days before his arrest, Collado transferred 10.5 million dollars (10.3 million euros) to an account in his name at a BBVA branch in Madrid, according to a report by the Andorran Police of December 2021.

The arrest of the lawyer in Mexico forced the reopening of a case in Andorra for money laundering.

According to the authorities of the Pyrenean principality, the lawyer moved 111 million dollars (109 million euros) between 2006 and 2015 through 24 accounts in the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA), as revealed by this newspaper.

Collado's Madrid property is part of the 22 super-luxury flats located between the sixth and eighth floors of the building.

The buildings in this noble area range between 172 and 700 square meters of a duplex that was sold for 11 million dollars (10.8 euros).

Half of the neighborhood is of Spanish origin and the rest is American, Latin American and Israeli.

Indoor pool located on the eighth floor of the Canalejas Center, where lawyer Juan Ramón Collado has a mega-luxury apartment.

Canalejas Center

The promotion was completed in 2020 and represented a business of 106 million dollars (102.8 million euros) for its promoters, the construction company OHL, owner of 50%, and the real estate investment platform Mohari, controlled by the millionaire Canadian-Israeli Mark Scheinberg, founder of

PokerStars

The Madrid City Council granted the first occupancy license for the homes in April 2020 and, a few months later, the sales were formalized with the delivery of the deeds to the owners, who had paid an advance of 30% of their flats.

The block that houses the Collado property was marketed under the Four Seasons Private Residences brand in allusion to the Canadian hotel chain that manages the flats and provides the owners with concierge services.

The firm also operates a mega-luxury establishment with 200 rooms between 45 and 400 square meters in the same building.

Staying in these elegant rooms requires an outlay of between $1,761 (1,690 euros) and $17,268 (18,000 euros) per night.

The building houses a spa area of ​​1,560 square meters, which occupies three floors, and an indoor pool for hotel guests, residents and members of a social club.

The space connects the different rooms such as the gym and the treatment area.

And it displays a luxury model in the heart of the capital, alternative to other Madrid poles of attraction of fortunes such as the Salamanca district, La Moraleja, El Viso or La Finca.

“This is another level.

It has nothing to do with it.

There are clients, especially foreigners, who continue to ask to buy, but now there are only some for rent (around 17,000 euros per month are requested)”, comments a source who participated in the project.

The Canalejas Center houses a 16-ton safe, rescued from one of the original buildings.

Alvaro Garcia (THE COUNTRY)

The investigations for money laundering in Andorra against Collado have suffered a tortuous journey since in 2016 a judge from this Pyrenean principality seized the funds that the lawyer accumulated in the BPA.

This entity owned by the brothers Ramón and Higini Cierco was intervened in March 2015 for allegedly laundering funds of criminal groups.

The BPA also welcomed the unspeakable fortunes of prominent PRI men such as the governor of the State of Mexico, Alfredo Del Mazo, who had an account in 2012 with 1.5 million dollars;

Sylvana Beltrones, senator and daughter of former PRI president Manlio Fabio Beltrones, with 10.1 million dollars;

and former deputies Óscar Lara Arechiga and Francisco Arroyo Vieyra.

The hidden accounts of all of them were revealed by EL PAÍS.

The justice of the European country provisionally filed the case against Collado in 2018 after the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (PGR) of Mexico —which is what the Prosecutor's Office was then called—, under the mandate of Peña Nieto, exonerated the lawyer by holding that the illicit origin of his money could not be proven, a key requirement to sentence for money laundering.

In July 2019, already under the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the case took an unexpected turn with the arrest of the lawyer in Mexico.

The lawyer was arrested for organized crime and money laundering.

Some similar crimes for which his case was filed in Andorra.

The Pyrenean authorities reopened the case against Collado and ordered the seizure of 93 million dollars (91.2 euros).

The Andorran Police has considered the thesis that part of the funds that Collado handled in Andorra —120 million dollars (117.7 million euros)— were from third parties.

Together with former Mexican president Peña Nieto, the lawyer has defended the Pemex union leader, Carlos Romero Deschamps, in different cases;

the former governor of Quintana Roo Mario Villanueva (PRI);

or Raúl Salinas de Gortari, businessman and brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

investigacion@elpais.es

subscribe here

to the

of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country

50% off

Exclusive content for subscribers

read without limits

subscribe

I'm already a subscriber