BBVA senior officials investigated

Spain’s second largest bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) is the target of a criminal investigation into secret offshore accounts. The accounts were allegedly used by the bank to trade in its own shares, bribe politicians in Latin America and top up the pensions of some of its board members.

The Bank of Spain initially opened the investigation in March 2002 because it was dissatisfied with explanations concerning previously hidden accounts. The so-called secret accounts of sixteen