German businessman Matthias Kühn has paid €14 million of his debt to the Tax Agency. This was the initial sum demanded by the tax authority in Mallorca and the one that triggered the ongoing investigation into asset concealment and money laundering.
The payment does not imply an admission of any criminal liability, this debt having always been acknowledged by Kühn and other defendants. It is an amount that has not been disputed in the criminal proceedings and which corresponds to unpaid taxes resulting from the financial crisis and bankruptcies.
It was made through the company Birdie Son Vida, which holds the €96 million compensation that the Balearic Government paid Matthias Kühn for the reclassification of the Muleta II development in Port Soller. The investigating court had seized just over €30 million of that amount for liabilities - the €14 million stemming from the initial case presented by the Prosecutor's Office, the remainder resulting from subsequent findings by the Tax Agency.
The Prosecutor's Office and the Tax Agency both maintain that a crime was committed because the assets that should have covered this were hidden in successive bankruptcy proceedings and transferred from company to company until they were beyond the reach of the administration. This debt had already been acknowledged and been included in bankruptcy proceedings. One of the defence arguments is that Birdie's rights to Muleta were offered to the Tax Agency, and that the tax authorities rejected these before the ruling was issued that established the millions of euros in interest owed.
Apart from the 14 million euros, there are approximately another nine million euros, which is what is being openly disputed in the legal proceedings. The defence argument is that these are debts that were generated when a bankruptcy administrator had already been placed in charge of the companies and which were unavoidable during the liquidation of the companies.
However, the prosecution alleges that there was an agreement between one of the bankruptcy administrators and Kühn's advisors to carry out these transactions. The criminal investigation also extends to the administrator.
The criminal case, meanwhile, remains on hold pending the completion of final investigative steps, including the testimony of Marc Ivan Ostarcevic, the son of Matthias Kühn's wife, Norma Duval, following his formal indictment as an accomplice - specifically the alleged manoeuvre to shield Muleta's compensation from the tax authorities. No date has been set for this testimony, which will likely conclude the investigation.
Kühn appeared in court last October and exercised his right to remain silent, as did others, e.g. his advisors and lawyers during the bankruptcy proceedings.