Judge Leads Assault on Eta's Dirty Money

The Basque separatist terror group Eta may lose a major source of funds after a Spanish judge yesterday accused a former senior executive of a major company of handing over £150,000 in extortion money.

Vending machine company Azkoyen, which is listed on the Madrid stock exchange and operates across 42 countries with an annual turnover of £85m, has already admitted the cash may have gone missing from its accounts in 2001.

But Judge Baltasar Garzón has now accused a former executive of personally taking the money to a village in south-west France and handing it over to the group.

He has also claimed Jesús Marcos Calahorra, who has been freed on £13,000 bail, would have been operating on board instructions - something Azkoyen had denied, according to Spanish newspapers with copies of a court document written by the judge.

Mr Calahorra allegedly drove to Vert in November 2001 where, "near to the church, he met two unidentified members of Eta to whom he handed over the money", according to the document as quoted in El País yesterday.

"Calahorra, obeying an obviously illegal order from the board of directors of Azkoyen ... using accounting practices to hide the real destination, handed over the 37m pesetas in the full knowledge of its real destiny," the judge said.

El País said Mr Calahorra was paid £4,000 for the task.

Azkoyen, which replaced its board after news of the investigation leaked, has said it is fully cooperating with police and claimed the alleged payments did not appear on any company records.

There has been speculation Azkoyen may prove to be the tip of the iceberg in the relationship between major companies in the Basque country and the funds with which Eta buys its arms and explosives.

Eta is known to send hundreds of letters every year demanding a "revolutionary tax" from local businesses. The letters include unsubtle threats that family members may be killed or kidnapped, or businesses attacked.

Although it was widely known that businesses paid up, the courts and police have produced little evidence. But now Judge Garzón has reputedly been handed a list - found in possession of alleged Eta leader Juan Antonio Olalla - of companies that contributed, and could widen his inquiry.

When a local business federation head, José María Korta, was killed four years ago it was thought it was due to his call for people to resist the extortion.

"Until now nobody has taken the issue of the 'revolutionary tax' seriously," said Jaime Campany, a columnist for the conservative ABC newspaper.