Witness

Eyes in La Tabacalera
The first pair of eyes: La Tabacalera in Madrid

I’m looking to hang as many solar-powered eyes as I can in Plaza 2 de Mayo en Madrid, witnesses to the corrupt judges and politicians that make the work of honest judges and politicians so hard. Witnesses to those who steal vast sums of public funds and destroy lives of people who try to stop them. How do they sleep at night? In Spain, the indignados were sick of the corruption of the PP and PSOE. So we got 4 parties, 6 parties, but nothing has changed. Corruption money is still flowing through Gibraltar and Andorra.

Rather than Big Brother looking at us, it’s time for us citizens to carefully observe our governments.

Once I hang 20 pairs of eyes, I will contact the press. We’ll see where the project goes from there.

Please help me find facades in Plaza 2 de Mayo to hang my eyes on. I would also be happy to get help building the eyes. Send me a whatsapp at 661 159 964, or email me at info@tenerifestreetart.org.

As opposed to reducing unemployment where left and right have different strategies, the strategy to fight against corruption is straightforward and should be bipartisan. Read more:

International: transparency.org.es

Spain: hayderecho.com

Canary Islands: accion-civica.org

The idea came out of my solargraffiti.com art. That website shows how to make eyes yourself.

3 years before this project started, I put eyes on my house, then I remember the boat with eyes on it in the story “Ping”. All the boats on the Mekong Delta have eyes painted on them to frighten the sharks and crocodiles. About 2,000 years ago, Vietnamese fishermen were plagued by sharks who overturned their boats and attacked the occupants. According to legend, a girl on a whale suggested that the fishermen paint eyes on the front of their vessels for protection.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, this is personal.

Most of the money earned in Gibraltar is through the “Mossack Fonsecas” offshore specialists. These firms hide money almost always earned illegally in offshore shell companies. This money tends to be from businesses involved in gambling, drugs, corruption money, etc. The difficulty is how to get the money in Gibraltar back “onshore” without paying 52% taxes.

When someone wants to pay off a judge, they don’t say “here’s a bribe”. They say “I’d like to hire your husband’s law firm for a 100,000€ job”.  Later, “I will pay you in Gibraltar. That way you don’t have to pay taxes. Oh, and by the way, I believe your wife has a pending case…” Then the Gibraltar firm brings the money onshore by naming a cousin of the couple to receive the money in small bits, as a pension. Over time, the Spanish point man in the Gibraltar firm develops a network of politicians, judges, and tax office bureaucrats who he can then call on when he needs help.

In the 2000s, a Danish man made mountains of money with a gambling website in the early days of internet. He used a Gibraltar offshore firm to bring some of it onshore by investing in web businesses, including another Danish man’s business — call him JB. So now JB became wealthy. My wife and I have a law firm. We helped JB form a company in Spain and buy a mansion in Marbella without knowing anything about the Gibraltar money laundering. Apparently the plan of JB’s tax lawyers was to use the new Spanish “Beckham Law” to evade Danish taxes on those earnings. None of his tax lawyers told us that they wanted us to file for the Beckham Law — no emails, no invoice, no payment — but JB decided to sue us for 2MM, the taxes JB paid in capital gains on his instant wealth (and ignoring the Danish taxes he also should have paid). During the lawsuit, an expert paid by JB said JB didn’t qualify for the Beckham Law anyway, but that made no difference to the judge: she equated JB’s taxes with damages.

During the trial, a Danish lawyer and friend of JB gave testimony that my wife gave advice over the phone to him, all made up. In reality she never spoke to him or emailed him until 18 months later). Based on this testimony, the judge sentenced us to pay 500,000€. Our lawyer has confirmed that this judge, who has a number of family members in public positions, has made shady judgments in the past.