The Dutch financier in the Plus Ultra case refuses to testify and is released with precautionary measures

The Dutch financier involved in the Plus Ultra case has refused to testify before the investigating judge José Luis Calama and has asked for more time to prepare his defense with the lawyer Paula Rodríguez González. According to sources present at his appearance, the accused has shown his willingness to testify within 15 days. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has requested provisional detention with bail of one million euros, but the judge has rejected the request and has agreed to two less severe precautionary measures: the withdrawal of his passport and the obligation to appear in court every two days.

Verhoeven's appearance before the judge of the National Court occurs after his arrest in Germany and his surrender in Spain, which took place this Thursday. Calama agreed to keep him in prison until his statement is held, although after his statement he has decided to release him. His decision has been based on the roots that the judge attributes to the Dutchman given that he has a residence in Mallorca.

The National Court issued an international arrest warrant against Leendert Verhoeven in March 2026, shortly after taking over the investigations. He demanded his surrender to Spain as being investigated for crimes of misappropriation, influence peddling, criminal organization and money laundering. The writing, to which 20minutes had access, summarizes the Dutchman's role in the investigated plot.

Together with a Peruvian businessman named Luis Felipe Baca, Verhoeven led a criminal organization that "controls very significant amounts of money, mixing amounts of cash from different illicit sources, which it invests in the stock market and which repays its clients in full."

As the judge summarized, based on information from the French and Swiss prosecutors' offices, the plot headed by the Dutchman acted as a "pseudo bank." The clients of this organization would be linked to "illegal gold trafficking" operations and cases of corruption related to the contracts of the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) of Venezuela, created to supply basic provisions to Venezuelan citizens. As detected by Parquet National Financier - the French Prosecutor's Office - one of the people who turned to Verhoeven's organization was Rodolfo Reyes, a key figure in the case being investigated by the National Court.

In 2021, the Venezuelan Reyes was the main shareholder of Plus Ultra and was also the link with Verhoeven. In the months before the bailout, the airline received a series of "bridge loans" from companies owned by the Dutch financier: Wailea Investment Limited, Allpa Wira Trading UK Limited, Panacorp and Valerian Corporation Limited. The investigation has identified loans worth $2,350,000 granted between October 2020 and February 2021.

Once it received the public bailout, the airline prioritized its use to repay loans to the Dutch financier's companies. The same judge José Luis Calama has pointed out that Plus Ultra diverted almost 16 million euros "to instrumental companies of an organization dedicated to money laundering", in reference to Verhoeven's companies.

"The amounts received could have been used for spurious purposes, with very significant outflows of money once public aid was received, which allow us to infer a planned and conscious diversion of amounts towards companies and banking entities unrelated to the apparent commercial purposes of the airline," Calama said in his statement of assumption of the case.

One of Leendert Verhoeven's links with Spain, in addition to his allegedly illicit businesses with Plus Ultra, is the fact that he has a residence in Mallorca, although it is in the name of his son. The Geneva Prosecutor's Office, which has been investigating the international money laundering plot for years, asked the Spanish authorities for help in the summer of 2024 to register this property that he and his wife, Lorena Rendon, hold 50% usufruct.