KEY POINTS:
He is either the luckiest man alive or - just perhaps - a fraudster with a few inconvenient secrets to hide.
But Juan Antonio Roca told a disbelieving judge he gained his personal fortune of £1.7 billion ($4.6 billion) by winning the lottery - 80 times.
Roca was
appearing before a court to explain allegations the former head of urban planning in Marbella, had been the brains behind a £15 million bribery and embezzlement ring.
He is said to have controlled a scam in which councillors took huge backhanders from property developers and in return passed illegal building permissions in the Marbella area.
The case has led to 100 arrests, among them two former mayors, a number of councillors, developers, lawyers and a singer who is the darling of the prensa rosa - Spain's equivalent of the tabloids. Hundreds of homes are said to be illegally built and could face demolition.
When the operation started last year, police uncovered how Roca had allegedly laundered the illicit cash in an ostentatious show of wealth so tasteless it left even a city like Marbella - famous for its vulgarity - wincing.
Roca kept a painting by Joan Miro over the toilet and filled his mansion with stuffed trophies of big game he shot around the world, including a polar bear, a giraffe and the heads of an elephant and a rhinoceros.
Yesterday, Roca explained how a former jobless labourer came to be a millionaire in 15 years. He said: "In the past 15 years, I've won about 50 prizes in lotteries. And throughout my whole life I have won about 80 major prizes."
But prosecutors allege Roca was not in fact the luckiest man alive. In fact, he used a well-worn trick to launder large sums of ill-gotten cash in order, so he thought, not to raise suspicions of the police. Roca had fraudulently bought lottery tickets with dirty cash and then claimed the prizes.
Court documents allegedly showed Roca came undone because he and his wife and daughter, who also helped him, were over-zealous.
Between March and September 2005, the family cashed in two first prize-winning tickets from the National Lottery, a Bonoloto ticket, two Once lottery tickets and a winning ticket in Quiniela football pools all on the same occasion.
Police calculated that the chances of picking up so many prizes in a six-month period as one in 43 quadrillion. Besides the fact the odds were against his claims of having the best luck on earth, Roca also incriminated himself in a telephone conversation with a bank manager, which was secretly recorded by the police.
Police taped the bank manager, who was later arrested, saying he had managed to obtain winning tickets that Roca could cash in.
The multi-millionaire, who was known as JR in Marbella because of his initials are the same as one of television's most infamous villains, JR Ewing, may be about to see his fortunes change as he faces a hefty jail term when the alleged fraud finally comes to trial.
Judge Miguel Angel Torres, who is in charge of the case, said after Roca's arrest: "The display of wealth has been open and shameless."
Judge Torres alleged Roca was the "Mr Big" of a mafia-style operation which included crooked businessmen and politicians within the Costa del Sol's most notorious city council.
Roca's grip on the reins of power at the head of this organisation was ruthless and he enjoyed the fruits of his illicit empire.
It allowed him to pursue his greatest passion, hunting big game. He also collected 275 works of art, bought vintage cars, bought property in Madrid and filled a stable with thoroughbreds.
The latest suspect caught in the tentacles of corruption is singer Isabel Pantoja, a celebrity beloved of the prensa rosa, who was arrested two weeks ago. "La Pantoja" is the former wife of a well-known bullfighter who was gored to death, but allegedly became mired in the scandal by her relationship with former waiter turned Marbella mayor Julian Munoz.
Pantoja was quizzed by a judge over payments of £1.2 million which appeared in her bank accounts.
Munoz, meanwhile, is said to have laundered cash through a series of accounts with his former wife Mayte Zaldivar.
- INDEPENDENT
