Spanish court wants BBVA and former chairman to face trial in spying case

By Jesús Aguado

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish High Court judge proposed Spain's second-largest lender BBVA and its former chairman stand trial for alleged bribery and disclosure of company secrets following a probe into alleged corporate spying, a court document showed on Thursday.

BBVA and legal representatives for ex-chairman Francisco Gonzalez declined to comment.

BBVA was placed under investigation in July 2019 for hiring a private investigation agency allegedly run by former Police Commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo. The case is part of a wider probe dating back to 2004 into Villarejo, who has denied wrongdoing.

None of the bank's current board were involved in the investigation.

In a 247-page court ruling following the investigation, judge Manuel Garcia Castellon proposed to try BBVA and Gonzalez for "bribery crimes and a series of crimes such as revealing and disclosing secrets on the hiring of Villarejo to carry out various illegal assignments between 2004 and 2016."

The ruling can be appealed.

The prosecutor of the case has to request penalties he considers BBVA and Gonzalez would have to face before the judge formally orders the opening of a trial.

Gonzalez was BBVA chairman at the time the bank hired the agency. He temporarily stepped down as honorary chairman in March 2019 to prevent any harm to the bank's reputation. He has denied wrongdoing.

BBVA previously confirmed it hired the agency but said it had found no evidence of spying. Prosecutors allege the bank paid the agency more than 10 million euros ($10.85 million).

BBVA is the country's second-largest bank by market value after Banco Santander. Last month, it announced a 12 billion euro ($13 billion) bid for Banco Sabadell.

In a recent report, advisory firm MKP said it was worth monitoring any ongoing reputational damage from the court case though said it was "hard" to envisage an impact of the case on the approval of the Sabadell acquisition.

In its 2021 annual report, BBVA said it could not predict the outcome or implications of the case, including fines or reputational damage.

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; editing by Aislinn Laing, Andrei Khalip and Elaine Hardcastle)