They operate in an academy without headquarters, which is not advertised anywhere, and no one controls the amounts they receive, mostly in hand and in cash. Three inspectors of the Bank of Spain have been at least five years preparing opponents to which they charge in cash amounts that some months reach 8,000 euros per trainer. elDiario.es has been weeks inside the classes and last Tuesday exclusively revealed the existence of this training center in the shadow. The supervisory body has their names on the table and the testimonies of students who admit these payments without control. A journalist from this newspaper has been a direct witness to the delivery of banknotes in homes, offices and hotels. The only reaction so far from the Bank of Spain is that it will study whether the case requires an internal investigation.
To know more
The case of these inspectors is another of those uncovered by this editorial that last August and published similar payments to judges and prosecutors. Many of them are engaged in the preparation of oppositions – in Justice tests are annual and hundreds of law graduates are presented – with the same procedure: in his case cash payments of up to 300 euros per month per student.
This week elDiario.es has entered the heart of the Bank of Spain where a clandestine system of preparation of oppositions has been installed, which is accessed by recommendation of other students or contacts in the entity and that leaves no trace of payments, no receipts or receipts. The bills pass every month from one hand to another without any control or receipt. What follows is the intrahistory behind an academy set up by at least three inspectors of the Bank of Spain (some witnesses claim that there are more, although this editorial has not been able to corroborate it) and that has been operating in the capital for more than five years.
The protagonists of the story
The highest-ranking inspector of the three who have set up this shadow academy is Alberto Casillas Cuevas. He has been at the Bank of Spain for almost a quarter of a century and has been the head of the Resolution Department since 2015. His specialty is Accounting, a subject in which he is considered an eminence.
His brother Juan Casillas Cuevas, a civil engineer who worked in the civil sector until he passed the exams to become a Bank of Spain inspector in 2012, also takes part in the same business. He currently works in the department of supervision of large financial institutions that has been responsible for auditing the activities of BBVA and Banco Santander. He teaches Statistics and Mathematics in different groups by levels.
The third inspector is Patricia Navarro-Rubio Poole. She comes from a saga with a long history in the supervisor. She is the granddaughter of Mariano Navarro-Rubio, governor of the agency between 1965 and 1970, a position he reached after having been Minister of Finance during Franco’s dictatorship and a member of the Spanish Parliament. He teaches Financial System with a more sophisticated system than his two colleagues. All three are highly reputed technicians and give training directly related to their functions at the Banco de España.
The inspector competition
Unlike other administration entrance exams, the entrance exams to become an inspector at the Bank of Spain require you to complete exercises and analyse practical cases. It is not an ordinary competitive examination: it does not consist of memorising a series of subjects and repeating them before a panel of examiners. You have to pass several eliminatory exercises: two tests of basic knowledge and reasoning, an English test and a third exam that consists of solving three independent exercises. The key subjects are Accounting, Statistics, Mathematics, Financial System and Commercial Law, although the latter is the one that students usually prepare for on their own.
The tests consist of a double scale where 75% of the mark corresponds to this series of practical exams and the remaining 25% to an assessment of merits for which training, professional experience and the ability to communicate and technical presentation are taken into account. The sources consulted estimate that between 18 months and two years of study are necessary to pass the exams.
In the last call, in 2019, 480 applicants applied to fight for 11 places. Not even the quota was covered: only eight entered. In 2016 the posts offered were 30 and in 2017 they reached 45, coinciding with the departure of many Spanish inspectors to the European Central Bank.s the Single Supervisory Mechanism was put in place. Different sources agree that, during those years, the business of these preparers multiplied.
Recruiting students
This system of private classes works by word of mouth. Although they do not advertise on the Internet or anywhere, it is not difficult to access it through other opponents or contacts in the entity. When a student reaches one of the inspectors who act as teachers in this clandestine training center, it is normal that he or she puts him or her in contact with the other two preparers to be trained in the rest of subjects. This is how the shadow academy weaves its network. And students from previous years warn other applicants.
The three employees of the Bank of Spain have set the same rate for all: 160 euros per month per student and subject, of which they teach three hours a week although they are also available outside these hours to resolve doubts by email, phone or WhatsApp in a kind of personalized tutorials. Applicants define their trainers as qualified technicians who maintain a very didactic tone and give all kinds of facilities to follow the classes. Given the nature of the tests – which requires solving practical exercises and real cases – it is very common that opponents resort to technicians with experience in the sector and in the Bank itself. The dozens of students consulted by this editorial office during the last months assure that the brothers Casillas Cuevas and Patricia Navarro-Rubio are known to be the best.
As witnesses have told and has directly confirmed this writing, when contacting one of the trainers to request information usually do not ask too many questions about the studies or previous experience and have no problem in incorporating students when they have already taught part of the agenda. They do explain in detail their training system or the program they teach. Their treatment with the opponents is at all times very cordial and attentive and they maintain weekly contact with them about their progress. There is also no shortage of messages of encouragement for those who are just starting out and are a little lost or for those who are starting to get discouraged after spending 600 euros a month.
There are fewer explanations about the payment system, on which a tacit pact has been established between students and teachers. In the first consultations, teachers detail the amount of the fees (160 euros for each of the four subjects taught by the three teachers) but do not extend in detail on the form of payment. They explain that for students who live in Madrid it is usual to meet in person to make the payment in cash and, as they explain, take the opportunity to chat a little and discuss the progress of the course.cesses with the subjects. In a first conversation with the journalist who infiltrated his classes, Juan Casillas, professor of Statistics and Mathematics, said that “at the beginning” the payments were made by transfer but stopped doing so because it was a “roll” to meet with dozens of bank movements each month. Opponents who are now in their groups or who have been part of them in previous years assure elDiario.es that they always made payments in the same way: by hand and in cash, without receipts or receipts.
The payments in cash
elDiario.es has witnessed that the last payments that followed the instructions set by the preparers: mostly in person and in bills. Neither to the journalist of this writing nor to the rest of the students was facilitated any document accrediting the expense. Other applicants ensure that payments by transfer or micropayment platforms such as Bizum are exceptional and are usually reserved for people who live outside Madrid, where the three professionals reside.
Juan Casillas himself made clear the payment system at the end of one of his classes at the end of September. He interrupted the recording – he and his brother Alberto usually record the sessions in case a student cannot attend – and detailed “for newcomers” how these payments should be made. He offered three possibilities: at his home in Boadilla del Monte, at his brother’s home, or at a bar on Fuencarral Street in Madrid. “Any of the three options, great,” he told the students. In the video you can see how the trainer makes time until he manages to stop the recording and only then gives instructions to pay.
Days later, elDiario.es could check in situ how they were carried out and thus pay the classes of its editor. The inspector of the Bank of Spain went to a bar in Fuencarral Street in Madrid, where the afternoon of October 8 were parading young people to pay the classes of the last quarter: up to 960 euros in cash, which is the sum of the three subjects taught during the months of July, September and October. In August there were no classes. Since last summer, the maximum amount that the Treasury allows to deliver in cash is 1,000 euros within its rules to prevent fraud.
That Friday afternoon, in the ham shop D’Bellota in the center of Madrid some students sat down to talk and ordered refreshments or beers. Others said a brief hello and left. They all discreetly deposited their cash.
The system goes back a long way, according to testimonies gathered in this journalistic investigation that has dragged on for months. Payments by transfer were rejected even during the confinement in the spring of 2020, when restrictions on mobility prevented travel. Some opponents asked Alberto Casillas, the head of the Bank of Spain’s Resolution Department, about the possibility of making transfers to pay for classes. But the trainer asked them to wait until the measures were relaxed to collect everything in hand, according to several testimonies. This professional is used to receive the money in person at his home in the Salamanca district of Madrid, next to the subway on Calle Goya. He receives in the same office from which he teaches his subject for Zoom. And, if he has time, he suggests students to have a drink in the area to solve doubts or discuss how they are doing with their studies.
The classes of the third trainer, Patricia Navarro-Rubio, are also mostly paid in cash. In her case, she rents for two and a half hours at the beginning of each month a small room in a coworking located on the sixth floor of a building located on the Cuatro Caminos roundabout in Madrid. On October 4, elDiario.es also witnessed these subscriptions. For there were passing opponents who, as in the case of the other two preparers, take advantage of these meetings to discuss their experience in classes, resolve doubts or address other aspects of the opposition.
elDiario.es contacted the three preparers of the academy in the shadow last Monday. Navarro-Rubio and Alberto Casillas declined to comment on the information; Juan Casillas did not answer the calls and messages that he did read through WhastApp. That Yes, he hastened to put a message in the group that shares with his students to ask them not to talk to journalists elDiario.es who were trying to contact them. By then, this writing had already collected the story of several of them from this and other years.
Cash payments in the Bank of Spain and in the Justice system
The system devised by these three charges of the Bank of Spain to collect in cash is virtually identical to that for years maintained by judges and prosecutors, who prepare opponents to judiciary to which also claim payments in cash. elDiario.es revealed last August that some charged up to 4,000 euros a month in cash.
The normal thing is in cash, I charge in cash, think that by transfer you would have to pay much more. There is no help and the taxes are very high.
Like those at the Bank of Spain, those in the judiciary don’t usually offer their names and surnames publicly. They usually do it with generic emails in the forums (some with closed access) and only when an opponent contacts them give their first name and in which province they practice. To the most quoted, those who charge more to prepare -up to 300 euros per month- is only accessed by recommendation of one of his students.
The opponents to judiciary also report that the cash payment is a widespread practice. Many preparers put sticking to charge by transfer or Bizum, and claim that they are paid in envelopes at the end of each month. There are those who do so without justification – “We charge 200 euros, which are paid at the beginning of each month. The form of payment is in cash”- or those who directly allude to the inconvenience of paying taxes.
“The normal thing is in cash, I get paid in cash, think that by transfer you would have to pay much more. The subsidies are nil and the taxes are very high. If it were by transfer, would raise prices in general of all preparers, and that is going to pay the opponent,” said a prosecutor in Madrid to elDiario.es.
As in other oppositions, it is a widespread method and assumed by all. There are opponents who do not even question why you have to go once a month with 300 euros in his pocket to the house (or office) of his preparer; those who feel uncomfortable do not have much choice. “Among classmates there is a lot of talk because everyone is charged like this,” said a student who had already entered the Judicial School. “Surely there are those who don’t do it, but I haven’t come across it. It’s not just a few, it’s widespread”.
No investigation in both cases
In addition to the widespread system of cash payments, the cases of the Bank of Spain and the judiciary have another important similarity: there is no minimum control in this regard. No one certifies if what the trainers, high officials of the administration, are doing is subject to compatibility, if they comply with it in case they have asked for it, if they exceed the hours and much less if they pay taxes for it.
In the case of judges and prosecutors, they have to request authorization if they spend more than 75 hours per year. Practically all trainers dedicate more time, but not all of them ask the General Council of the Judiciary or the Public Prosecutor’s Office for authorisation. It doesn’t matter. Neither of these two bodies checks anything, they do not investigate.
The same happens with the Bank of Spain, with the exception that the entity now has on the table the names of three inspectors who charge in cash. The entity and the Office of Conflict of Interest – responsible for granting them compatibility for activities outside their work and under the Ministry of Finance – are competent to do so.
Apparently, in all this time, both the Judiciary and the Bank of Spain have limited themselves to checking compatibility requests without carrying out any a posteriori verification. The only possibility is a complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office or to a Court.
After the information of elDiario.es about judges and prosecutors being paid in black money, an anonymous citizen filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office. Dolores Delgado signs the response, sent on October 21, in which she says she can not delve into anything because it would mean opening a prospective investigation to see which judges and prosecutors defraud or who do not comply with the compatibility.
Delgado is right. It is necessary to know the names of those who charge in envelopes to their students, but the only ones who can give them are the opponents or the judges and prosecutors themselves, who know the colleagues who have given themselves to these practices. They know who does it legally and who does not. For now there is no record that none has denounced.
If you know of more cases like this or have more information about this issue, write to us at pistas@eldiario.es
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