FOUR MCCANN INVESTIGATORS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED SINCE WORKING FOR THE MCCANN TEAM – AND THREE HAVE SPENT TIME IN JAIL

This article was written by Tony Bennett on 23 June 2013. It was revised and updated by MMRG on 17 May 2019. 

FOUR MCCANN INVESTIGATORS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED SINCE WORKING FOR THE MCCANN TEAM – AND THREE HAVE SPENT TIME IN JAIL

FOCUS ON Julián Peribañez

It’s an amazing record.

First, the lead detective working for the McCann Team, Antonio Jiminez Raso, is arrested on 18 February 2008 on suspicion of assisting a violent, 27-strong criminal gang to steal 40kg of cocaine from a boat in Barcelona harbour, and other offences. Admittedly, four years later, he was acquitted - but only after the judge made sharp observations about how he and other police officers had got ‘far too close’ to leading gang members. He was finally released last year - but only after spending four years in jail.

Then, on 19 October 2009, the McCanns’ leading investigator during 2008, Kevin Halligen, was arrested, wanted in the U.S. for a $2 million fraud, to which he recently pleaded guilty. He spent three years in Belmarsh top security prison, fighting extradition with the help of the British Legal Aid scheme. Now he’s holed up in a U.S. jail, having spent nearly four years in prison.

Two of their investigators in jail for four years each was bad enough.

But earlier this year came news that a third man hired by the McCanns to look for Madeleine has been jailed: Julián Peribañez. He may not be a name that rings a loud bell, even for Madeleine McCann researchers, but he has had a significant role for the McCanns, as we shall see in a moment.

The fourth McCann man to have been arrested was Francisco Marco, the boss of Metodo 3. He and Peribañez were arrested in February this year as part of a police investigation into spying. Peribañez admitted his crime - illegally taping the conversations of politicians - and was remanded in custody. According to press reports (see below), Marco was arrested, but not remanded in custody.   

More about Julián Peribañez

So what do we know about  Julián Peribañez, the third McCann employee (so far) to be thrown in jail?

He was arrested earlier this year when police arrested four former members of Metodo 3. That news report was covered in this thread:

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t6558p10-metodo-3-allegedly-involved-in-espionage-cases-in-spain-update-francisco-marco-arrested

As far as I can see, there have been no updates into how the police’s investigation into Metodo 3 is going.

Peribañez in Praia da Luz

Peribañez can be spotted on this YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74ragUCC8Y

…placed on YouTube by ‘fgordon666’. He tries hard to hide his face from the camera. He gets into a car with a baseball hat inscribed with ‘NYPD’ = New York Police Department. Later in the same video, we see Brian Kennedy strolling through the streets of Praia da Luz with a young man behind him. That’s his son Patrick Kennedy, usually called ‘Paddy’. Paddy’s roles included shadowing fellow McCann Team investigator Gary Hagland, with whom Peribañez worked closely (see below). Looking carefully at the papers being carried by Peribañez, they seem to include some ‘phone numbers – and the initials ‘GNR; can also be seen on his scrap of paper.

Peribañez interviews the ‘Jensen sisters’

An article by ‘Blackwatch’ on the old ‘Sargent’s Inn’ blog also refers to Peribañez; this time he’s interviewing the Jensen sisters, along with his co-worker Gary Hagland. Here’s an extract from Blackwatch’s article: “Playing Doubles: Jayne Jensen, Annie Wiltshire and the Missing Police Statements” (Author Blackwatch (of 17/04/2011 @ 14:09:49, in Business Environments, viewed 1057 times, extracted from waybackmachine)

QUOTE

Concluding a fresh look at some of the key witnesses in the case, I thought I'd flag up the account provided by Maidstone sisters, Jayne Marie Jensen and Annie Wiltshire.

The two sisters hit the headlines in the last week of December 2007 when the Daily Mail  claimed that the pair had seen Robert Murat outside the apartment on the night of Madeleine's disappearance, contradicting Murat's claim that he was at home at this time with his mother. Their claims can be broken down into these basic points:

• they allege they saw Robert Murat near the apartment complex at about 10.30pm, some 30 minutes after Kate McCann raised the alarm.
• that Robert acted as their translator in their initial interviews with Police.
• that although being interviewed by Police three times during those first few days, they were not asked to provide a formal statement until six months later when they spoke to Kent Police for 11 hours and also Gary Hagland and Julián Peribañez of Metodo 3.
• that they were in the same daily tennis coaching group as Mr McCann.
• that Robert had joined them briefly at their table on the night of May 4th to enquire if they had remembered anything else.

They also claimed to have seen two blond men earlier in the day Madeleine was reported missing.

The Daily Telegraph and Sky News both repeated the claims in subsequent days, the Daily Telegraph attempting to play down the claims of the sisters by suggesting that the police's failure to interview the pair had arisen as a result of them staying in another apartment block. But it's not a persuasive argument by any means. Several witnesses asked to provide formal statements were staying in different apartment blocks, including Neil Berry (in Block 6 across the road), Rajinder Balu and Jeremy Wilkins. Berry and Balu even mention having drinks with the two sisters Jayne and Annie in each of their respective statements.

And here's something else I don't understand; Neil Berry made THREE statements in all. He refers to two of the earlier statements in his final statement dated April 23^rd 2008. However, both his May 7th 2007 and  January 8th 2008 statements are missing from the final police files.

Secondly, the statements that Jensen and Wiltshire claim to have provided to DC Jo Godfrey and DC Bob Sidoli of Kent Police at the end of an eleven hour interview in October 2007 are also missing from the files.

Neil Berry was later asked to supply a buccal swab in response to a witness account that placed him in the stairwell of apartment 5A on the night of May 3rd. The account - provided in September 2007 by an Ocean Club employee - was subsequently transformed into a sensational exclusive for The Daily Mirror on September 29th: 'New Madeleine suspect seen in stairwell’…

UNQUOTE

Much more could be written about evidence given by Jayne Jensen and Annie Wiltshire. And what we are not told here or in any other newspaper account  is whether  Gary Hagland and Julián Peribañez interviewed the Jensen sisters before or after they gave their 11-hour account to Kent Police. I suspect very much that it was before.

An article about Metodo 3 and Julián Peribañez

This article can be found at: http://www.mccannfiles.com/id105.html  - and probably first appeared in April 2008 [NOTE: This information was removed from the mccannfiles.com site after it closed. It can now be found on the www.mccannpjfiles.com site - MMRG] 

The following approximate translation appears there:

“Julián Peribáñez is a detective. The agency of Julián Peribáñez, detective of the agency Metodo 3, has taken seven months searching for Madeleine. And contrary to what the Portuguese cops think, they are looking for her alive. More than 20 detectives have worked simultaneously on the case. An exorbitant cost. [Note: The Spanish word would be “exorbitante,” but I can’t think of any other way to translate it.] They have checked more than 2,500 clues and have followed a hundred in Argentina, Mexico, Morocco, Bosnia, Portugal...

He says: “We continue to look for Madeleine alive. Otherwise we would not be doing it,"  convinced. He does not scorn the Portuguese police, but he follows the trail of the British investigators: Maddie is alive; the parents have nothing to do with it; the Portuguese feel they are being treated like a colony and are going at it the easy way”.

The arrest of former Metodo 3 detectives

This article appeared in El Pais, 19 February 2013

“Police officers on Tuesday searched the Barcelona and Madrid offices of Método 3, the now-defunct private detective firm at the centre of a political spying scandal in Catalonia. Investigators, including two anti-corruption prosecutors, were seen bringing out boxes of confiscated documents from the buildings.

The agency's owner, Francisco Marco, and three other detectives at the agency were arrested on Monday. The entire case has rocked Spain's political foundations after recordings surfaced of a 2010 lunch conversation between the head of the Popular Party in Catalonia, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, and the former girlfriend of one of the sons of the region's ex-premier.

The ex-girlfriend, Victoria Álvarez, informed Sánchez-Camacho about Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's alleged money laundering activities in Andorra. Pujol Ferrusola is a son of former regional premier Jordi Pujol Soley, who served from 1980 to 2003.

Two of the suspects, Julián Peribañez and Alex Borrequero, who are still in custody, told investigators that they recorded the conversation ‘on the boss's orders’ [i.e. Francisco Marco] at the La Camarga restaurant in Barcelona. The ruling Catalan nationalist CiU bloc has organised a special squad of investigators and court personnel to help those politicians or other citizens who feel that they may have been spied on”.

Shades of Hacked Off!

This longer, translated article by C. Morcillo/P. Muñoz appeared in ABC the following day (20 February 2013):

‘Método 3 grew with high-profile media cases; their enemies label it as ‘scam agency’ - and now it's going to be a consultancy agency’

Each time a new chief of police arrived to Catalonia, one of the first invitations he would receive was that of Francisco Marco: a letter to invite him to have dinner at the restaurant “La Camarga”, which has been the hub of operations [spy activities] of the detective agency Método 3, near to its headquarters. The current police chief, Eugenio Castro, politely declined the invitation, however his predecessor and some of the previous ones shared table and cloth with the influential Marco, with a degree in Law and an expert in self-promotion. One of his mottoes is “Let them speak about us, whether good or bad”, says one of his former colleagues.

Marco took to practice that popularity and in recent years his agency was a reference in the media, particularly after the parents of the British girl Madeleine McCann who disappeared in Portugal hired them to search her. Their hypothesis was that a paedophile ring had kidnapped her and in pursuit of that idea, according to the same sources, they charged about 70,000 euros [close to that amount] per month, with continuous trips to Portugal, Morocco and Britain.

Ghost expenses

“It was a scam. They said they had fifteen people working on the case but, no, there were just three. [Note: two of them were Antonio Jimenez Raso and Julián Peribañez. They made up invoices for hotel expenses and allowances for four people in the neighbouring country [Portugal] and only one person travelled there, who in addition didn’t speak a word of Portuguese.

“Along with Madeleine's case - of which nothing was ever found - the fame reached Método 3 with the advent of the former secret service spy Francisco Paesa [ see Guardian article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/29/spanish-superspy-franciso-paesa ], who was ‘found’ in Paris, after being presumed dead [he had published his own obituary].

“Monitoring the vice-presidents of FC Barcelona and the involvement, which has yet to be clarified, of espionage of the current president of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio Gonzalez, are also included in the curriculum of this agency in which ‘thousands and thousands of euro have come in and no one know where they are’, says a detective who knows Método 3 track record.

Severance pay

“The agency was created by Marita Frnandez, the mother of Francisco Marco, in 1985. She had worked has a saleswoman for an Argentinian detective when she married her husband, a criminal lawyer. Since then they have lived years of success and constant commissions - although nothing to do with the 20,000 reports that were said to be destroyed by the Director of Método 3 - to the point of giving work to other agencies and individuals (they subcontracted) and then signed themselves those jobs. Their wide list of staff included an accountant, and in recent years, a former policeman heading the IT department.

“Juan Carlos Ruiloba was the chief of the Technological Crime Prevention unit at the Judiciary Police of Barcelona. Shifting to a second activity, he began working for Marco where he claimed he was very well paid. A little over a year ago, when the agency started to be less the buoyant business that it had been, Ruiloba left Método 3. According to sources related to the investigation, part of the money that he was owed was recovered with electronic equipment. Last week this former police officer turned to his former colleagues at the Judiciary and handed material, supposedly ‘sensitive’. He had waited over a year to do so.

Out of hand investigations

“He was not the only police officer connected to Método 3 Director. In fact, during many years it was a common practice to resort to certain professionals, such as the Forensic Science Police [Lab], in order to do specific tests, particularly when they did not have any other means at their disposal.

“The agency no longer exists officially since last November, in fact its Director has several pending labour disputes with former employees. However Marco, with a curriculum and voluminous list of customers, was already converting their business into a security consulting firm, outside of the police control to which detective agencies are subject.

“Método 3 has also been inspected - inspection in the offices of detectives are annual - however he has eluded comfortably both administrative and criminal penalties. In 1995 his father, his mother, him and a brother were arrested for illegally wiretapping businessmen. In that case it was revealed that they had investigated the governor of the Bank of Spain, Mariano Rubio, and his wife Carmen Posadas. The investigation was filed.

“In 2011, during a routine inspection, the Police detected serious irregularities, despite the proposed sanction, which arrived to Rubalcaba's Home Office - his brother has an excellent relationship with Marita Fernández - it was also unsuccessful.

“In May last year the agency number two, Elisenda Villena, was arrested during the ‘Pitiusa Operation’* - in which hundreds of detectives and intermediaries were charged. The agency log book - mandatory where clients and those who are investigated are recorded, as well as the dates of the jobs carried out - disappeared, because it was ‘lost in a flood’. Método 3, again, was not penalized.

Julián Peribañez on social media

Julián Peribañez appears to be on social media as follows (I am not 100% sure though).

Facebook, where he has 2 friends: https://www.facebook.com/juliusmc#!/juliusmc/about

Twitter, where he has 4 followers: https://twitter.com/jperibanez  

Linked In:  http://es.linkedin.com/in/julianperibanezgiraud    Note, there are some gaps in his CV, including this period:  November 2007 to May 2008, which is precisely the time he was said to be working for the McCanns/Metodo 3.

The McCanns were made arguidos on 8 September 2007.

http://whathappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.com/2013/06/four-mccann-investigators-have-been.html

Whatever happened to Francisco Marco? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him

Whatever happened to Francisco Marco?

What did we know about him?

He was the boss of the highly controversial detective agency, Metodo 3 [Method 3], selected by the McCann Team to look for Madeleine.



In Kate McCann’s book. ‘madeleine’, it is asserted that Metodo 3 were appointed after a careful selection process that took place after Brian Kennedy first met the McCanns in London on 14 September 2007 and offerd to help them.

Around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, Brian Kennedy admitted that he liked to spend about half of the year in his Cheshire mansion, Swettenham Hall, formerly owned by the McAlpines, and the other half in Spain. Subsequent enquiries revealed that his Spanish home was a villa in Barcelona.

A number of indications suggest that Metodo 3 were engaged by Brian Kennedy and the McCann Team well before 14 September 2007. One of those indications comes from Brian Kennedy’s lead investigator in Britain, Nottingham-based man Gary Hagland, whose occupation was financial compliance and money laundering regulations. Hagland was actively planning ‘operations’ in Morocco as early as mid-September that year.

Numerous reports soon surfaced about Metodo 3, a family firm with a history of suspected corruption and criminality. Some of these were based on detailed investigations by British broadsheet journalists. None of these reports were complimentary about Metodo 3.

Marco became notorious in December 2007 when he made a series of announcements, trumpeted on the front pages of the British press, claiming (a) that he knew that Madeleine was still alive (b) that his men knew where Madeleine was being held (c) that his men ‘were closing in on the kidnappers’ and finally, most brazen of all, that Madeleine ‘would be home by Christmas’. Every single one of these claims was an utter, outrageous plans. Yet the McCann Team kept using the services of Metodo 3 until at least March 2009 - a further 15 months – despite the serial lies of its Director.


What’s he doing these days?

He got into more big trouble in early 2013. He and a number of other Metodo 3 staff were revealed to have been behind the illegal recording of conversations between high-level Spanish politicians in a Barcelona restaurant. In particular, Marco recorded the President of the Catalan PP party, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, interviewing Jordi Pujol Ferrusola’s ex-lover.

Marco was discovered as the ultimate source of these illegal recordings after they were made public, much to the embarrassment of some leading Spanish politicians. He was arrested and remanded in custody, along with his colleagues.

See e.g. here:

http://iberosphere.com/2013/02/spain-news-catalan-spy-game/7987

EXTRACT: “But this particular recording concerned allegations by Jordi Jr’s ex-lover that together they transported thousands of euros to Andorra to deposit in an offshore account. It was revealed that the supposedly private conversation was recorded at Barcelona’s swanky La Camarga restaurant, by private eyes from detective agency Método 3, using a secret microphone hidden in the centrepiece vase of flowers. Sánchez Camacho soon confirmed the authenticity of the recorded conversation, and announced a lawsuit against the agency for invasion of privacy”. - See more at: http://iberosphere.com/2013/02/spain-news-catalan-spy-game/7987#sthash.1gcEbnzF.dpuf

ALSO HERE: Police search offices of Método 3 as political spying inquiry widens

“Police officers on Tuesday searched the Barcelona and Madrid offices of Método 3, the now-defunct private detective firm at the center of a political spying scandal in Catalonia. Investigators, including two anticorruption prosecutors, were seen bringing out boxes of confiscated documents from the buildings.

The agency's owner, Francisco Marco, and three other detectives at the agency were arrested on Monday. The entire case has rocked Spain's political foundations after recordings surfaced of a 2010 lunch conversation between the head of the Popular Party in Catalonia, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, and the former girlfriend of one of the sons of the region's ex-premier.

The ex-girlfriend, Victoria Álvarez, informed Sánchez-Camacho about Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's alleged money laundering activities in Andorra. Pujol Ferrusola is a son of former regional premier Jordi Pujol Soley, who served from 1980 to 2003.

Two of the suspects, Julián Peribañez and Alex Borrequero, who are still in custody, told investigators that they recorded the conversation "on the boss's orders" at the La Camarga restaurant in Barcelona. The ruling Catalan nationalist CiU bloc has organized a special squad of investigators and court personnel to help those politicians or other citizens who feel that they may have been spied on.

"We cannot get to the bottom of this case in Catalonia without the cooperation of the Mossos d'Esquadra," said Joana Ortega, the deputy regional premier, who said she will present a case to the Catalan police force.

Currently, the Interior Ministry, with the help of the national police force, is investigating the case”:

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/02/19/inenglish/1361301339_672267.html

Marco was also revealed as having spied on the current President of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio Gonzalez Marco.

As a result of these and other events, Metodo 3 has permanently closed and is in liquidation.

====

Nowadays he seems to have reinvented himself as a writer of frothy fiction stories (so what’s new?).

Less than two months ago, a Spanish newspaper reported as follows:

'Realpolitik', the novel by former director of Method 3 that offers the keys of corruption

By Antonio José Chinchetru - 8 December 2015

The former director of Método 3, Francisco Marco, has published 'Realpolitik'.

In this novel reality and fiction are intertwined in a way that is very disturbing, to portray the corruption of politicians, businessmen, spies and detectives.

Literary fiction is sometimes the best way to portray reality. In Realpolitik (Umbriel editorials, 2015) one and the other intersect so that we do not know how much is invention by Francisco Marco, former director of Método 3, and which are clues about the political sewers, economics and police of Spain.

The author warns us in the Preface:

"If what I have written is part of my skills as a detective, you never know it. But I assure you that, somewhere in the world, there are leaders like that you will find in this novel."

http://okdiario.com/cultura/literatura/realpolitik-la-novela-del-ex-director-de-metodo-3-que-ofrece-las-claves-de-la-corrupcion-41077

Horacio Francisco Marco – plotting against his own brother with a spy camera inside Metodo 3’s computers

This is a Google translation of an article at this link:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elconfidencial.com/10979/&prev=search

El espía espiado.The spy spying. Resulta que el cerebro de la agencia Método 3 tenía el enemigo en casa. Francisco Horacio Marco , el joven heredero de la agencia de detectives que tanto está dando que hablar, tenía en su ordenador un dispositivo que copiaba todos sus archivos y los enviaba a un correo anónimo, del que alguien los copiaba.

It turns out that the brain of the agency Metodo 3 was the enemy at home.

Horacio Francisco Marco, the young heir to the detective agency that is gaining attention both, had in his computer a device that copied all your files and sent to an anonymous email, which someone copied. Así, no sólo estaba siendo controlado permanentemente, sino que alguien seguía de cerca sus pasos y recopilaba pruebas de sus comunicaciones más íntimas.

Thus, not only it was being controlled permanently, but someone was following closely in his footsteps and evidence compiled their most intimate communications. Sus sospechas apuntan a varios exempleados de la agencia de detectives e incluso a su propio cuñado.
His suspicions point to several former employees of the detective agency and even his own brother.

El propietario de la agencia que elaboró informes presuntamente sofisticados sobre políticos y empresarios, que alardeó de que en unos cuantos meses encontraría a la niña británica Madeleine McCann , que espió al actual presidente de la Comunidad de Madrid, Ignacio González , que trabajó a destajo para altos cargos del PP de Castilla-La Mancha, que se hizo de oro elaborando informes cutres para la SGAE y que se atrevió a grabar en un restaurante de Barcelona a la presidenta del PP catalán, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho , cuando ésta se entrevistaba con la examante de Jordi Pujol Ferrusola , tenía las paredes de cristal.The owner of the agency that allegedly developed sophisticated reports on politicians and businessmen, who boasted that in a few months to find Madeleine McCann, who spied on the current president of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio Gonzalez, who worked overtime to senior PP de Castilla-La Mancha, which was developing crappy gold reports to the SGAE and who dared to record at a restaurant in Barcelona to the president of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, when it was interviewing the Jordi Pujol Ferrusola ex-lover, had glass walls.

De hecho, es vox populi que Francisco Horacio Marco tiene los pies de barro.In fact, it is common knowledge that Horacio Francisco Marco has feet of clay. El espionaje al espía lo confirma él mismo en una querella que presentó ante un juzgado de Barcelona el pasado 29 de abril. Espionage spy confirms himself in a complaint filed before a court in Barcelona on 29 April. Se dirige contra dos de sus exempleados y contra el empresario Javier Tallada , aunque no aporta pruebas contundentes contra ninguno Los exempleados son el delegado de Método 3 en Madrid, Antonio Tamarit , y el detective Julián Peribáñez . It is directed against two of its former employees and against the businessman Javier Tallada, although no convincing evidence against any former employees are the delegate of Metodo 3 in Madrid, Antonio Tamarit, and the detective Julian Peribáñez. En el escrito, Marco apunta también a su excuñado, Rafael Riera , como posible cómplice en este espionaje. In the letter, Horacio Marco also points to its excuñado, Rafael Riera, as a possible accomplice in this espionage.

“Debe indicarse que Rafael Riera es la única persona que tuvo acceso a los equipos informáticos de la agencia de detectives Método 3 durante el tiempo que estuvo desarrollando su actividad, con los suficientes conocimientos de informática para introducir dicho 'sistema espía', que sepamos, aunque no podemos aseverar que haya sido dicha persona la autora de la introducción de este 'sistema espía' que se encontraba operativo por lo menos durante el año 2010”, afirma en su escrito de acusación."It should be noted that Rafael Riera is the only person who had access to the computers of the detective agency Metodo 3 during the time he was developing its activity with sufficient computer skills to introduce such 'spy system', we know, although we cannot assert that such person has been the author of the introduction to this that he was operating for at least the year 2010 'spy system',” he said in his indictment.
El método de escuchas era muy simple: alguien colocó un dispositivo eblaster (de la empresa Spectorsoft) en su ordenador, de modo que una copia de todos los correos que entraban o salían del mismo era automáticamente enviada a una dirección de correo predeterminada.
The method of listeners was very simple: someone placed a device eBlaster (company Spectorsoft) on your computer, so that a copy of all mail entering or leaving of it was automatically sent to a predetermined email address. Según ha podido conocer El Confidencial , el dispositivo fue detectado cuando la Policía registró las dependencias de la agencia de detectives hace cinco meses. As has been known El Confidencial, the device was detected when the police searched the offices of the detective agency five months ago.

Un sistema sofisticado

A sophisticated system

“Se trata de un sistema cuyo mecanismo, según el propio fabricante, funciona mediante un software que debe ser instalado en el equipo a controlar, de preferencia debe ser instalado cuando el dueño no pueda observarlo, pues la finalidad es controlar las actividades de ese ordenador '.

"This is a system whose mechanism, according to the manufacturer, works with software that must be installed on the computer to control, preferably to be installed when the owner cannot observe, since the aim is to control the activities of this computer '.

Gary Hagland - The ‘mysterious seventh man’ in the McCann Team private investigations

by Felicity Hathaway for the MMRG

Following the Madeleine Foundation meetings I attended back in 2009/10, where the name of Gary Hagland was brought up, I have done some investigations into him. I’m sorry it’s taken me a while to come back to you.

I am calling him the ‘mysterious seventh man’ because what I regard as the six other main private investigators in the case have been clearly (if not exactly prominently) publicised. They are:

Francisco Marco, boss of Metodo 3 (made bogus claims that Madeleine would be ‘home by Christmas)

Antonio Jimenez Raso, chief McCann investigator for Metodo 3 (former police officer, imprisoned from February 2008 to July 2012 on suspicion of involvement in a major criminal gang)

Julian Peribañez, assistant to Antonio Jimenez Raso

Kevin Halligen (known to the McCanns as Richard Halligen) (continuously in prison since October 2009 on suspicion of fraud, now convicted of fraud and serving time in prison in the U.S.)

Dave Edgar, Cheshire-based retired detective (said Jane Tanner might have seen a woman not a man on 3 May 2007, was ‘convinced’ that Madeleine was being held in a ‘prison lair’ close to Praia da Luz) 

Arthur Cowley, Flintshire-based retired detective (set up bogus company, ALPHAIG, to make it look as though he and Edgar were running a well-established detective agency called ‘Alpha Investigations Group’.

Gary Hagland, from Nottingham, was employed directly by the effective controller of the McCann Team’s private investigation, Brian Kennedy, from September 2007 to March 2008. It was a crucial phase of the investigation, covering the period from the date of the McCanns being declared ‘arguidos’ to the moment the McCanns succeeded in winning an estimated £550,000 in agreed libel damages from various British media.

So far as I can see, Hagland’s name has only cropped up twice publicly in relation to the McCann case. He was identified as a McCann Team investigator in articles by ‘Blackwatch’ on the old ‘Sargent’s Inn’ blog.  And he has contributed to an internet forum.. It is time that his role in the McCann Team investigation was highlighted.

He was born Gary Peter Hagland on 15 September 1954. He will therefore be 58 years old on 15 September 2012.

I have not yet managed to track down his secondary school and further education details, but at various times he has claimed to have the following academic qualifications: M.Sc. and M.B.A. (respectively: Master of Science and Masters degree in Business Administration).  It would be very unusual for someone to have two Masters’ degrees - and he doesn’t say which University he got them from.

Either in 1978 or 1979, at the age of about 24/25, he got a job working in the Criminal Intelligence Department of Royal Hong Kong Police. There is also evidence that he may have worked for a time on the Organised Crime and Triad Department of the force.  He worked there until 1985, when he returned home to England and made his home at Charleston House, Nottingham, where he has been living ever since.

I’ve been unable to discover what job he got on his return here from Hong Kong, but I have been able to establish that by September 1991 he was working as Associate Director of Compliance at Albert E Sharp and Co. ‘Compliance’ basically means compliance with various financial regulations designed to prevent fraud.

Clearly Hagland was becoming something of an expert in compliance with financial regulations because the Editor of the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance invited Hagland to write an article on the subject. The article, ‘Effective Compliance v. Regulatory Gestation’, was published in 1993, in Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 11-21. Accompanying the article is a brief description of Gary Hagland, which states:

“Gary Hagland, AMSI, MIMgt, entered the fledgling area of compliance in 1985 after leaving the Royal Hong Kong Police where he had served in criminal intelligence for some six years.

 

I have not been able to track down what AMSI stands for. MIMgt is: ‘Member of the Institute of Management’.

 On 3 May 1994, Gary Hagland became a Director of OMFS (AESFM) Ltd. On

On 2 January 1996 he became Director of OMFS (BSPEP) Ltd.  I have not yet been able to find out exactly what these companies do, but they were clearly connected with investment and finance. Gary Hagland’s role in OMFS (BSPEP) Ltd was as ‘Compliance Officer’.  Fellow Directors of the company included, at one time, Sir William Royden Stuttaford. 

At some time in the 1990s he also became a Director of  Gerrard (OMH) Ltd, but resigned this Directorship on 14 October 1998.

Just 11 days later, on 25 October 1998, he also resigned from the Boards of both OMFS (BSPEP) Ltd and OMFS (AESFM) Ltd.

In 1999, Hagland was clearly regarded more than ever as an expert in the fields of fraud and money laundering. An article by him was published that year in a journal called: ‘Money Laundering Bulletin’.

At some stage around then, he became a ‘consultant’ with special expertise on money-laundering for law firm Wragge and Co in their Birmingham office, where his job was: ‘advising clients on the active management of compliance risks, including money laundering’. He was also said to ‘work with the Institute of Directors' Board consultancy department on the "Compliant Board" initiative that aims to guide company directors through the labyrinth of regulations and procedure that successful compliance demands’.

An article about Hagland’s work for Wragge and Co. appeared in the Financial Times Director magazine, 30 March 2001, and is reproduced below (Appendix 1).

Clearly, then, he was an acknowledged expert in the fields of financial regulation, compliance, fraud and money laundering.

On 4 April 2002, Hagland became a Director of Heath Reid & People Limited, as their ‘Attorney’ - but resigned just 8 days later. Just for the record, his fellow-Directors at that time were:

Toby James Brook-Reid (also Company Secretary) (then aged 27)

Thomas Heath (then aged 31)

Dominique Fay Welch (then aged 26)

Philip Anthony Jones (then aged 41).

In September 2007 he was hired by Brian Kennedy. Kennedy had set up a base for his private investigations into Madeleine’s disappearance at a house in Knutsford, Cheshire, close to his home in Swettenham and to Wilmslow, the base for his Latium Group business empire.

Hagland resigned from the McCann Team in March 2008 - around the time the McCann Team hired Kevin Halligen as their lead investigator at a cost of £500,000 plus expenses.

In August of the same year, Hagland he became a Director of Investec Gresham II Ltd, resigning a few weeks later on 30 September. Investec Gresham II Ltd appears to be an investment fund, one of dozens of subsidiary companies of the international banking group, Investec (currently the subject of litigation in South Africa). A search of Investec Group companies shows that many of their investment funds appear to be placed for their clients in low tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Jersey and Switzerland.    

Also, on 15 August 2008, Hagland became a Director of Investec Trust Holdings Ltd (ITH). At the time of his appointment, most of his fellow Directors of ITH were living in tax havens, thus:

Richard David Williams – Channel Islands

Robert Clifford – Channel Islands

Brian Williams – Channel Islands

James Michael Spittal – Channel Islands

Keith Hamilton Turberville – Channel Islands

Steven John Heilbron – South African Banker

Xavier Michel Louis Isaac – Switzerland.

It appears that Hagland remains a Director of this company to this day.

On 6 March 2010, there was an all-night ‘rave’ party at Nottingham Trent University (next door to Charleston House, where Hagland lives). One resident was apparently hospitalised as a result of the event, and, as reported in the Nottingham Post on 15 March 2010 (see below, Appendix 2), Hagland appeared to be taking the lead in protesting against the University’s failure to address the nuisance caused by these all-night parties.

Soon afterwards, on 9 April 2010, he became a Director of Charleston House, which appears to be owned and managed by its residents - but he resigned just 23 days later (2 May 2010). Charleston House (Nottingham) Ltd, based at Ossington Chambers, 6-8 Castle Gate, NEWARK, Nottinghamshire, NG24 1AX, Company No. 06611330, had been incorporated on 4 June 2008.  The founding Directors included Mr and Mrs David and Valerie Russell.  David Russell is shown as having a total of 18 Directorships.

Gary Hagland and the Jensen sisters

The old ‘Sargeants Inn’ website carried information about Gary Hagland’s involvement in interviewing the ‘Jensen sisters’ (Jayne Jenson and Annie Wiltshire). As far as I can tell, ‘Sargents Inn’ must have had a confidential source for this information, for I have seen it nowhere else.

Here is some information culled substantially from the ‘Sargents Inn’ site, no longer available on the internet.

"Jayne Jensen claims to have seen Robert Murat around the Ocean Club at around 10.30pm on the evening of Thursday 3 May, the night Madeleine was reported missing. In this respect, she supported the accounts of three members of the ‘Tapas 7’, namely Rachael Oldfield, Fiona Payne, and Russell O’Brien. These three made statements on 15 and 16 May 2007 to the police claiming they had seen Robert Murat ‘hanging around the Ocean Club’ at around the same time as the Jensen sisters (i.e. around 10.30pm to 11.00pm). They claimed to have recognised Murat from footage being shown of him on TV the day he was arrested (15 May). The Jensen sisters also claimed to have seen two blond men hanging around one of the ground floor apartments before Madeleine was reported missing.    

"The statements of the Jensen sisters and of the ‘Tapas 3’ (above) followed hard on the heels of Jane Tanner having reportedly been adamant, two days earlier, that Robert Murat was the person she claimed to have seen carrying a child from near the McCanns’ apartment at about 9.15pm on Thursday 3 May.    

"About five to six month later (that is, around November 2007), according to the ‘Sargents Inn’, the Jensens sisters were, in turn, interviewed by Gary Hagland and Julian Peribañez) from Spanish detective agency Metodo 3, and either before then, or after, by Detective Constable Bob Sidoli and Detective Constable Jo Godfrey, both believed to be from Kent Police.  A Robert Sidoli is shown as living in Ashford, Kent. He may have a martial arts qualification. Peribañez was seen walking side by side with Clarence Mitchell in Praia da Luz in a Portuguese TV news bulletin, believed to be in November 2007.

"It was on 13 November 2007 that Kennedy had two meetings, one with the Portuguese Police at Portimao Police Station, the other with his lawyer, Edward Smethurst and Robert Murat and his lawyer, Francisco Pagarate. Five days later, the McCanns and the Tapas 7 all met with their advisers at Rothley Court Manor. The day after that meeting, Panorama screened its documentary on the case.

"None of these reports about the interviews of the Jensens come from the police, they all appear to come from anonymous sources such as: ‘a source close to the family’ or ‘a source close to the investigation’.

"The Jensen sisters had played tennis on holiday in Praia da Luz with the McCanns. Rajinder Balu from Essex, and Neil Berry also drank with the Jensen sisters.

"Neil Berry gave statements to the police on 7 May 2007 and on 8 January 2008 (when buccal swabs were taken). Berry’s 7 May statement is however  not in the Portuguese Police files. Rajinder Balu’s statement is also missing from the police files".

According to the Sargents Inn, the Jensen sisters were questioned, altogether, for a total of 11 hours. It is not known on what date they were questioned.

That is all I have for you at the moment.
 

Appendix 1: Article 30 March 2001 in Financial Times Director featuring Gary Hagland: 

EXTRACT FROM ‘FINANCIAL TIMES DIRECTOR, 30 March 2001

Gary Hagland is a consultant with law firm Wragge & Co advising clients on the active management of compliance risks, including money laundering.

He works with the Institute of Directors' board consultancy department on the "Compliant Board" initiative that aims to guide company directors through the labyrinth of regulations and procedure that successful compliance demands. Mr Hagland paints a broad picture of the type of non-financial services businesses that may well be targets for the money launderer. These include auction houses, expensive car dealerships, property agents and developers - indeed any business that is used to handling high-value assets.

According to Mr Hagland, a problem for companies in complying with anti-money laundering initiatives is that their prevailing culture and ethos does not lend itself readily to accommodate scepticism about prospective customers. Rather, the opposite is likely to be the case. "To tackle the possible threat of being unwitting accomplices to a money laundering scheme, the challenge for non-financial businesses is to change their mindset, their core attitudes. The reputational focus of most businesses is clearly not on money laundering," says Mr Hagland.

Businesses used to dealing with wealthy clients are also used to handling those clients' wishes for anonymity and discretion; ideal conditions in which the money launderer can ply his trade. But businesses are required, increasingly, to interrogate rather than interview their clients and prospective clients.

In order to identify the risks, businesses need to ensure that they have a firm grasp of what money laundering is, how it may have an impact on their business, and the systems and procedures they may require to put in place in order to minimise their risk of exposure. But putting awareness into practice is more difficult. As Gary Hagland explains, practical guidance is thin on the ground: "One of the principal problems is that there is no established methodology for businesses to follow. Though business is told that it must be self-policing, there are no clear guidelines as to how they should go about fulfilling that role."

The risks associated with money laundering are clear enough. Money laundering is a criminal offence: any individual caught helping to process the proceeds of crime faces a lengthy prison sentence. Companies which stand accused of assisting with money laundering operations also risk substantial damage to their reputations.

But, how can you tell a money launderer?

For many businesses they are likely to be the kind of person that, on first impressions, they would welcome as a customer.

Money launderers are extremely well-funded, well-advised and make use of technically elaborate and sophisticated schemes to cover their tracks.

Appendix 2: Article in the Nottingham Evening Post on 15 March 2010, featuring a photo of Gary Hagland: 

STRESSED NEIGHBOUR HOSPITALISED AFTER STUDENT ‘RAVE’

AN all-night rave at student halls left a pensioner in hospital with stress caused by noise, residents claim.

Nottingham Trent University has been criticised for its response to the party, which was announced on Facebook.

                        

PICTURE: Gary Hagland outside Canterbury Court.

Residents say Canterbury Court, in Peel Street, close to the university's city campus, has been an unofficial rave venue in recent years.

Gary Hagland, who lives in Charleston House, which neighbours Canterbury Court, said partygoers urinated and littered around the complex.

He also claims a couple had sex in a camper van in full view of residents at a similar party in 2008.

Mr Hagland, 55, a resident in Charleston House since 1985, said: "There have been a handful of parties like this in recent years and they are usually at the end of term.

"The mess that is left and the disturbance of people living here is something that is not being dealt with properly by the university, which leases this accommodation to its students.

"The noise and vibration from the music was so bad on this occasion that our neighbour had to go to hospital because her heartbeat got to about 200 from stress.

"Some of the students we have lived with have been hard-working and have been good neighbours.

"This party, though, is the worst one we have ever known."

It is understood hundreds attended the party, on Saturday, March 6, including uninvited guests and non-students.

Mr Hagland has contacted police, the council and senior staff at the university about the issue.

A spokeswoman for the university said: "The university is investigating and is in contact with both the residents of this property and those in the immediate area to determine the exact nature of the complaint.

"The university takes any complaints relating to its students very seriously and does not condone any anti-social behaviour.

"Any confirmed misconduct attributed to its students will be dealt with under the university's Student Code of Behaviour."

Notts Police said they did not receive an emergency call on the night.

A city centre beat manager is involved in the investigation.

Inspector Andy Townsend said: "Loud music and noise, which continues into the early hours, can be distressing and I hope, following these discussions, the situation does not arise again."

michael.greenwell@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk

Readmore: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Stressed-neighbour-hospitalised-student-rave/story-12171001-detail/story.html#axzz2Wz37y0LT

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For discussion, please visit these threads on the CMOMM forum: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t7311-gary-hagland-the-mysterious-seventh-man-in-the-mccann-team-private-investigations

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13675-exclusive-to-cmomm-inside-the-mccanns-private-investigation-disclosures-by-gary-hagland-a-money-laundering-expert-hired-by-brian-kennedy

Exclusive to CMOMM - Corruption and criminality inside the Metodo 3 investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance: Extracts from a book by two Metodo3 men

In the past, we’ve featured details from inside the Brian Kennedy-led investigation, brought to us by Kennedy’s right-hand-man in England, Gary Hagland, a man who, professionally, was an expert in financial compliance and money laundering - but not finding missing children. He had contacted Tony Bennett and shared fascinating details of how he and Kennedy had masterminded the McCanns’ Moroccan operation. He had even shared with Tony a chapter of his book, which is also on CMOMM.

Now two more McCann Team insiders have spoken out – Antonio Tamarit, and Julian Peribanez, both Metodo 3 investigators.

Their book, La Cortina da Humo, or ‘The Smokescreen’, blows the lid off Metodo 3, exposing what a corrupt and criminal enterprise it was. Why did the McCann Team choose them?  The book was immediately banned in Portugal. Books about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann regularly seem to get banned.

But CMOMM member PeterMac managed to get one from Amazon. He passed it to The Madeleine Foundation. Because of the significance of its contents, they paid for a professional, certified translation of it. And Andrew Simmons has written an introductory piece about it.

The book by Tamarit and Peribanez is copyright, but I’m pleased to host just one chapter of it here under the ‘fair use’ provisions of copyright legislation.

If you’re reading this as a guest and are not yet a member of CMOMM, why not join us, get yourself briefed on one of the most mysterious cases of the century, and maybe even help us in our quest to find out what really did happen to Madeleine McCann.

Read the following posts to get the whole story.
--------------------------

An introduction to Chapter 13 of ‘The Smokescreen’, by Antonio Tamarit and Julian Peribanez

by Andrew Simmons of The Madeleine Foundation – February 2016     

When The Madeleine Foundation became aware of this book, La Cortina da Humo, or ‘The Smokescreen’,



they contacted a Spanish researcher to get an overview of what the book was about. The book went on sale in Portugal in 2014 but was only on sale for one day, as Francisco Marco, Metodo 3's boss, managed to obtain an injunction restraining its sale on grounds of ‘breach of confidentiality’. It still can’t be bought in Portugal. 

The book is by two people who were employed by the controversial, corrupt and criminal detective agency in Barcelona, Metodo 3, or ‘Method 3’. One of them, Julian Peribanez,



worked extensively on the Madeleine McCann investigation. He came to England more than once, worked very closely with Brian Kennedy



and his English investigator, money laundering expert Gary Hagland,



and even interviewed witnesses such as the Jensen sisters.

Chapter 13 of ‘The Smokescreen’ is entirely about Metodo 3’s involvement in the search for Madeleine. The Madeleine Foundation therefore commissioned an approved and certified Spanish-English translation of this chapter, at a cost of £202.05, to provide an accurate translation. 

What follows are a few notes on the chapter.

Despite some of the comments in the chapter, Julian Peribanez still maintains that the McCanns are wholly innocent and that their search for Madeleine is genuine.

However, he maintains that they were deceived by Francisco Marco, the now disgraced ex-boss of Metodo 3,



which went into liquidation at the end of 2011. He gives chapter and verse on those deceptions.

What becomes very clear on reading this chapter is that Brian Kennedy was the mastermind behind the whole Metodo 3 operation. And that is not surprising, for in an article published many years ago, Brian Kennedy explicitly stated that he spent several months of the year in his Spanish villa. This turns out to be in Barcelona, the very place Metodo 3’s head office was based. 

An obvious question that arises from reading this chapter is: how well did Brian Kennedy know Metodo 3 before Madeleine disappeared? Furthermore, did he know about the controversial and corrupt nature of Metodo 3? One of the Metodo 3 men he employed, Antonio Giminez Raso, was remanded in custody in Barcelona on 18 February 2008 on serious criminal charges of assisting a 27-strong vicious drug gang to carry out major drugs crimes. 

Giminez Raso was a former inspector in the Catalonian regional drugs and child trafficking department but was either sacked, or left under a cloud, in early 2005. Julian Peribanez would have worked alongside him during the Madeleine McCann investigation. Giminez Raso was eventually acquitted of the charges against him, but not before the trial judge had publicly scolded him for being ‘far too close’ to members of the gang. 

Peribanez’s chapter is angry. Much of what he writes comes over as seeking some kind of ‘revenge’ against Francisco Marco, perhaps for some perceived offence or unfairness against him. It sounds much like a typical story of ‘thieves falling out’. I can hardly imagine Peribanez as the epitome of integrity, while at the same time taking Marco’s shilling and when, for example, he clearly knew that Marcos was lying through his teeth about how many staff he was employing, was submitting false invoices and the like.

He does not therefore come over as a ‘witness of truth’. However, there are some valuable insights on some factual issues. I will list some of them here; they can be explored more fully in reading his account in Chapter 13 of ‘The Smokescreen’.

First of all, there is a short section of the chapter written by Antonio Tamarit, which discloses some significant issues: 

1 Tamarit says that he was first contacted by Francisco Marco, boss of Metodo 3, whilst he was ‘on business’ in Tangier, Morocco - in October 2007. He gives no further details: ‘on business’ is so vague it could mean anything or nothing

2 Notice that Tamarit was told to stay in Tangier and meet someone from the government funded security risks company, Control Risks, but ended up meeting with Brian Kennedy. Tamarit thinks that Kennedy had nothing to do with Control Risks, but I suggest it is far more likely that Control Risks and Kennedy were working closely together. Indeed, Kennedy may well have been giving the orders to Control Risks – and quite possibly way before October.

3 He states that he was invited to meet with Brian Kennedy in Manchester. This might well refer to the house in Knutsford, Cheshire, which Brian Kennedy bought in 2007 for the purpose of acting as a base for his investigation, and part of which was seen on screen in the 2009 Channel 4 documentary (the ‘Mockumentary’). The existence of this base was first disclosed to Tony Bennett by Brian Kennedy’s lead investigator in England, Gary Hagland.

4 He then adds that he was not sent to Manchester after all, but that Marco’s mother, Marita Fernández,



and José Luis Marco Llavina, her nephew - Metodo 3’s accountant -  travelled to Manchester instead. He makes this important declaration: “[Neither] had carried out any investigative work for many years…they made a big point of emphasising that where [the Madeleine McCann] operation was concerned, they were not motivated by money; however, in reality they ended up making a fortune by means of deception and dishonest trickery”. Later he adds: “Método 3 was swindling [Madeleine’s Fund] which…was supported by hundreds of unsuspecting people whose sole objective was to find Madeleine…inflated expenses, invented items, false invoices, etc.” 

 5 People who have followed this case closely for many years will recall a search for Madeleine in the Rif mountain range, Morocco. Tamarit informs us that this was based on information from “two clairvoyants, one in France and one in Morocco”.     
6 Tamarit explains how he visited numerous places in Morocco ‘looking for Madeleine’. He gives no detail about how exactly he set about this. Peribanez in his section of the chapter describes this alleged ‘search’ as ‘bizarre and insane’.
The section of the chapter by Julian Peribanez is longer, and he discloses several more subjects of interest:

The section of the chapter by Julian Peribanez is longer, and he discloses several more subjects of interest:

1 He says he spent ‘six years’ working for Metodo 3. As he was apparently still working there when the firm was raided and closed in late 2011, this was presumably from 2005 to 2011. Antonio Giminez Raso was also probably recruited in 2005.

2 He says that Metodo 3 ‘became involved in the search for Madeleine’ in October 2007. However, that is contradicted by Brian Kennedy’s man in England, Gary Hagland, who says that he and Metodo 3 were already involved in September. I suggest it’s very likely that Brian Kennedy had been in contact with Francisco Marco well before then.

3 He writes about an early meeting between the McCanns, Brian Kennedy, and Marita Fernández and José Luis Marco Llavina ‘in Manchester’. There is nothing whatsoever about this in Kate McCann’s book: ‘madeleine’.

4 Then he talks about a second meeting, this one apparently at the headquarters of Brian Kennedy’s Latium group in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Peribanez says that at this meeting he met: Brian Kennedy, ‘lawyer Edward Smethurst’, Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate McCann and  ‘another lawyer who was a former police officer’. It would be interesting to know who that was! Also present were Francisco Marco and José Luis Marco, his cousin, or ‘half-brother’ as he has been described elsewhere. Once again, there is no mention of this in Kate McCann’s ‘very truthful’ book.

5 The account of that meeting is very interesting. After it, they all went off to have an evening meal at Brian Kennedy’s home - the palatial Swettenham Hall, once owned by the McAlpine family.



Peribanez says that “Kennedy and Madeleine’s parents were lovely people…” but also makes remarks about Marcos’s real purpose for being involved - to make a lot of money. 

6 He says that the ‘searches’ for Madeleine took place only in Morocco and Portugal and that Metodo 3’s claims to have searched elsewhere were lies.      

7 He explains that Brian Kennedy actually ‘relocated’ to Portugal for a while to control what was happening in the investigation – hence the video we have of Brian Kennedy and Peribanez walking around the streets of Praia da Luz, LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74ragUCC8Y

8 He states that claims that Metodo 3 had either 20, or 40 people working on the Madeleine McCann investigation were an outright lie, there were only three.  

9 Furthermore, claims of having a ‘bank’ of multilingual telephonists to staff the telephone hotline were also bogus. And when calls came in, he says they were from: “Fortune tellers (Spanish playing card and Tarot readers), necromancers, palmists, individuals who had dreams...and others who offered interpretations of those dreams.

10 Peribanez refers to a conversation he had with Francisco Marco and his cousin/half-brother José Luis Marco in the Petit Paris restaurant in Barcelona



when he was told that Brian Kennedy had terminated the contract with Metodo 3. But he doesn’t give a date. It is commonly assumed that the initial Metodo 3 contract was for just six months and lasted from about October 2007 to March 2008. However, there are statements which confirm that the McCann Team and Brian Kennedy continued to use Metodo 3 on a part-time basis until at least March 2009.

11 Peribanez describes the day when Scotland Yard arrived to collect boxes of evidence from the offices of Metodo 3 and gives an explanation of how a photograph of that event was taken.



12 Peribanez gives a useful account of how false invoices were created, saying that his boss “…obtained some El Corte Inglés travel invoices and subsequently falsified them by changing the details. These invoices can be found stored inside Método 3’s computers which were seized and are located at Barcelona Court no. 14 (Juzgado 14 de Barcelona). For the time being, they remain there by virtue of an action filed by Montserrat Turu against Francisco Marco for breach of confidentiality”.

13 The chapter concludes with a bitter attack on his former boss, Francisco Marco, and a fascinating explanation of what happened in December 2013 when he attempted, in turn, to alert Brian Kennedy, then Edward Smethurst, and finally the McCanns themselves as to how they had all been deceived wholesale by Marco about the scale of his operation - and how Marco had created masses of bogus invoices. None of them were interested in what Peribanez had to say. Peribanez gives a blow-by-blow account of how he corresponded with them all, including reproducing the letters to and from Edward Smethurst. It must be noted, though, that it took until December 2013 for Peribanez to tell the McCann Team about these issues.   

Can we believe Peribanez’ version of events? He says he was an honest, sincere investigator. But he admits that Francisco Marco and his family, who ran Metodo 3, were thoroughly dishonest and clearly ‘on the make and on the take’ with no interest in or experience of finding missing people or children.

He says that Brian Kennedy and the McCanns were lovely people who had the misfortune to be thoroughly deceived by Marco sand his family.

His central claim is that Brian Kennedy, senior lawyer Edward Smethurst and the McCanns were sincere but naïve in believing that Metodo 3 really could find Madeleine, but were lied to by Marco

As we ponder whether this scenario is credible, we think back to December 2007, when Francisco Marco lied, lied and lied again by saying that he knew who Madeleine’s kidnappers were, that Madeleine was alive, that his men were ‘closing in on the kidnappers’, and finally that ‘Maddie will be home by Christmas’.

He told these outrageous lies in December 2007. In any normal situation, once these lies had been exposed, they would have been instantly sacked.

But not in this case. The McCann Team continued to employ Metodo 3 until March 2009 - another 15 months

Anyway, have a look at the translation and see what you think. 

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16084-exclusive-to-cmomm-corruption-and-criminality-inside-the-metodo-3-investigation-into-madeleine-mccann-s-disappearance-extracts-from-a-book-by-two-metodo3-men#400356