The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™
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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO MARCO? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him   Mm11

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The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™
Welcome to 'The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann' forum 🌹

Please log in, or register to view all the forums as some of them are 'members only', then settle in and help us get to the truth about what really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann.

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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO MARCO? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him   Mm11

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO MARCO? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him   Regist10

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO MARCO? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him

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Post by Tony Bennett 03.02.16 12:08

Whatever happened to Francisco Marco?

What did we know about him?

He was the boss of the highly controversial detective agency, Metodo 3 [Method 3], selected by the McCann Team to look for Madeleine.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO MARCO? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him   Franci10

 

In Kate McCann’s book. ‘madeleine’, it is asserted that Metodo 3 were appointed after a careful selection process that took place after Brian Kennedy first met the McCanns in London on 14 September 2007 and offerd to help them.

Around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, Brian Kennedy admitted that he liked to spend about half of the year in his Cheshire mansion, Swettenham Hall, formerly owned by the McAlpines, and the other half in Spain. Subsequent enquiries revealed that his Spanish home was a villa in Barcelona. 

A number of indications suggest that Metodo 3 were engaged by Brian Kennedy and the McCann Team well before 14 September 2007. One of those indications comes from Brian Kennedy’s lead investigator in Britain, Nottingham-based man Gary Hagland, whose occupation was financial compliance and money laundering regulations. Hagland was actively planning ‘operations’ in Morocco as early as mid-September that year.

Numerous reports soon surfaced about Metodo 3, a family firm with a history of suspected corruption and criminality. Some of these were based on detailed investigations by British broadsheet journalists. None of these reports were complimentary about Metodo 3.

Marco became notorious in December 2007 when he made a series of announcements, trumpeted on the front pages of the British press, claiming (a) that he knew that Madeleine was still alive (b) that his men knew where Madeleine was being held (c) that his men ‘were closing in on the kidnappers’ and finally, most brazen of all, that Madeleine ‘would be home by Christmas’. Every single one of these claims was an utter, outrageous plans. Yet the McCann Team kept using the services of Metodo 3 until at least March 2009 - a further 15 months – despite the serial lies of its Director.
 

What’s he doing these days?

He got into more big trouble in early 2013. He and a number of other Metodo 3 staff were revealed to have been behind the illegal recording of conversations between high-level Spanish politicians in a Barcelona restaurant. In particular, Marco recorded the President of the Catalan PP party, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, interviewing Jordi Pujol Ferrusola’s ex-lover.

Marco was discovered as the ultimate source of these illegal recordings after they were made public, much to the embarrassment of some leading Spanish politicians. He was arrested and remanded in custody, along with his colleagues. 

See e.g. here:  

http://iberosphere.com/2013/02/spain-news-catalan-spy-game/7987 

EXTRACT:  “But this particular recording concerned allegations by Jordi Jr’s ex-lover that together they transported thousands of euros to Andorra to deposit in an offshore account. It was revealed that the supposedly private conversation was recorded at Barcelona’s swanky La Camarga restaurant, by private eyes from detective agency Método 3, using a secret microphone hidden in the centrepiece vase of flowers. Sánchez Camacho soon confirmed the authenticity of the recorded conversation, and announced a lawsuit against the agency for invasion of privacy”. - See more at: http://iberosphere.com/2013/02/spain-news-catalan-spy-game/7987#sthash.1gcEbnzF.dpuf

ALSO HERE:  Police search offices of Método 3 as political spying inquiry widens

“Police officers on Tuesday searched the Barcelona and Madrid offices of Método 3, the now-defunct private detective firm at the center of a political spying scandal in Catalonia. Investigators, including two anticorruption prosecutors, were seen bringing out boxes of confiscated documents from the buildings.

The agency's owner, Francisco Marco, and three other detectives at the agency were arrested on Monday. The entire case has rocked Spain's political foundations after recordings surfaced of a 2010 lunch conversation between the head of the Popular Party in Catalonia, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, and the former girlfriend of one of the sons of the region's ex-premier.

The ex-girlfriend, Victoria Álvarez, informed Sánchez-Camacho about Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's alleged money laundering activities in Andorra. Pujol Ferrusola is a son of former regional premier Jordi Pujol Soley, who served from 1980 to 2003.

Two of the suspects, Julián Peribañez and Alex Borrequero, who are still in custody, told investigators that they recorded the conversation "on the boss's orders" at the La Camarga restaurant in Barcelona. The ruling Catalan nationalist CiU bloc has organized a special squad of investigators and court personnel to help those politicians or other citizens who feel that they may have been spied on.

"We cannot get to the bottom of this case in Catalonia without the cooperation of the Mossos d'Esquadra," said Joana Ortega, the deputy regional premier, who said she will present a case to the Catalan police force.

Currently, the Interior Ministry, with the help of the national police force, is investigating the case”:

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/02/19/inenglish/1361301339_672267.html 

Marco was also revealed as having spied on the current President of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio Gonzalez Marco.  

As a result of these and other events, Metodo 3 has permanently closed and is in liquidation. 

====

Nowadays he seems to have reinvented himself as a writer of frothy fiction stories (so what’s new?).

Less than two months ago, a Spanish newspaper reported as follows:  

 

'Realpolitik', the novel by former director of Method 3 that offers the keys of corruption

By Antonio José Chinchetru - 8 December 2015

The former director of Método 3, Francisco Marco, has published 'Realpolitik'. 


In this novel reality and fiction are intertwined in a way that is very disturbing, to portray the corruption of politicians, businessmen, spies and detectives.

Literary fiction is sometimes the best way to portray reality. In Realpolitik (Umbriel editorials, 2015) one and the other intersect so that we do not know how much is invention by Francisco Marco, former director of Método 3, and which are clues about the political sewers, economics and police of Spain.

The author warns us in the Preface:

"If what I have written is part of my skills as a detective, you never know it. But I assure you that, somewhere in the world, there are leaders like that you will find in this novel."

http://okdiario.com/cultura/literatura/realpolitik-la-novela-del-ex-director-de-metodo-3-que-ofrece-las-claves-de-la-corrupcion-41077 

Horacio Francisco Marco – plotting against his own brother with a spy camera inside Metodo 3’s computers 

This is a Google translation of an article at this link:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elconfidencial.com/10979/&prev=search
 

El espía espiado.The spy spying. Resulta que el cerebro de la agencia Método 3 tenía el enemigo en casa. Francisco Horacio Marco , el joven heredero de la agencia de detectives que tanto está dando que hablar, tenía en su ordenador un dispositivo que copiaba todos sus archivos y los enviaba a un correo anónimo, del que alguien los copiaba. 

It turns out that the brain of the agency Metodo 3 was the enemy at home. 

Horacio Francisco Marco, the young heir to the detective agency that is gaining attention both, had in his computer a device that copied all your files and sent to an anonymous email, which someone copied. Así, no sólo estaba siendo controlado permanentemente, sino que alguien seguía de cerca sus pasos y recopilaba pruebas de sus comunicaciones más íntimas. 

Thus, not only it was being controlled permanently, but someone was following closely in his footsteps and evidence compiled their most intimate communications. Sus sospechas apuntan a varios exempleados de la agencia de detectives e incluso a su propio cuñado. 
His suspicions point to several former employees of the detective agency and even his own brother. 

El propietario de la agencia que elaboró informes presuntamente sofisticados sobre políticos y empresarios, que alardeó de que en unos cuantos meses encontraría a la niña británica Madeleine McCann , que espió al actual presidente de la Comunidad de Madrid, Ignacio González , que trabajó a destajo para altos cargos del PP de Castilla-La Mancha, que se hizo de oro elaborando informes cutres para la SGAE y que se atrevió a grabar en un restaurante de Barcelona a la presidenta del PP catalán, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho , cuando ésta se entrevistaba con la examante de Jordi Pujol Ferrusola , tenía las paredes de cristal.The owner of the agency that allegedly developed sophisticated reports on politicians and businessmen, who boasted that in a few months to find Madeleine McCann, who spied on the current president of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio Gonzalez, who worked overtime to senior PP de Castilla-La Mancha, which was developing crappy gold reports to the SGAE and who dared to record at a restaurant in Barcelona to the president of the Catalan PP, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho, when it was interviewing the Jordi Pujol Ferrusola ex-lover, had glass walls. 

De hecho, es vox populi que Francisco Horacio Marco tiene los pies de barro.In fact, it is common knowledge that Horacio Francisco Marco has feet of clay. El espionaje al espía lo confirma él mismo en una querella que presentó ante un juzgado de Barcelona el pasado 29 de abril. Espionage spy confirms himself in a complaint filed before a court in Barcelona on 29 April. Se dirige contra dos de sus exempleados y contra el empresario Javier Tallada , aunque no aporta pruebas contundentes contra ninguno Los exempleados son el delegado de Método 3 en Madrid, Antonio Tamarit , y el detective Julián Peribáñez . It is directed against two of its former employees and against the businessman Javier Tallada, although no convincing evidence against any former employees are the delegate of Metodo 3 in Madrid, Antonio Tamarit, and the detective Julian Peribáñez. En el escrito, Marco apunta también a su excuñado, Rafael Riera , como posible cómplice en este espionaje. In the letter, Horacio Marco also points to its excuñado, Rafael Riera, as a possible accomplice in this espionage. 

“Debe indicarse que Rafael Riera es la única persona que tuvo acceso a los equipos informáticos de la agencia de detectives Método 3 durante el tiempo que estuvo desarrollando su actividad, con los suficientes conocimientos de informática para introducir dicho 'sistema espía', que sepamos, aunque no podemos aseverar que haya sido dicha persona la autora de la introducción de este 'sistema espía' que se encontraba operativo por lo menos durante el año 2010”, afirma en su escrito de acusación."It should be noted that Rafael Riera is the only person who had access to the computers of the detective agency Metodo 3 during the time he was developing its activity with sufficient computer skills to introduce such 'spy system', we know, although we cannot assert that such person has been the author of the introduction to this that he was operating for at least the year 2010 'spy system',” he said in his indictment.
El método de escuchas era muy simple: alguien colocó un dispositivo eblaster (de la empresa Spectorsoft) en su ordenador, de modo que una copia de todos los correos que entraban o salían del mismo era automáticamente enviada a una dirección de correo predeterminada.
The method of listeners was very simple: someone placed a device eBlaster (company Spectorsoft) on your computer, so that a copy of all mail entering or leaving of it was automatically sent to a predetermined email address. Según ha podido conocer El Confidencial , el dispositivo fue detectado cuando la Policía registró las dependencias de la agencia de detectives hace cinco meses. As has been known El Confidencial, the device was detected when the police searched the offices of the detective agency five months ago. 

Un sistema sofisticado

A sophisticated system  

“Se trata de un sistema cuyo mecanismo, según el propio fabricante, funciona mediante un software que debe ser instalado en el equipo a controlar, de preferencia debe ser instalado cuando el dueño no pueda observarlo, pues la finalidad es controlar las actividades de ese ordenador '. 

"This is a system whose mechanism, according to the manufacturer, works with software that must be installed on the computer to control, preferably to be installed when the owner cannot observe, since the aim is to control the activities of this computer '.

____________________

Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"

Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".  

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Post by Liz Eagles 03.02.16 12:38

Does anyone have to hand the spectacular Operation Grange photograph of the removal of boxes and boxes of files from Metodo 3 offices by the Met's finest?
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Post by Doug D 03.02.16 12:57

This one?
 
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO MARCO? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him   Syinbarcelona
 13 December 2011: Detectives from Scotland Yard and the Spanish National Police carry boxes with documents given by the detective agency Metodo 3, in Barcelona

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id391.html
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Post by Liz Eagles 03.02.16 13:06

Doug D wrote:This one?
 
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANCISCO MARCO? An update - PLUS - How his own brother, Horacio, spied on him   Syinbarcelona
 13 December 2011: Detectives from Scotland Yard and the Spanish National Police carry boxes with documents given by the detective agency Metodo 3, in Barcelona

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id391.html
That's the one. Thanks.
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Post by Ray_Sneek 03.02.16 22:16

Was Francisco Marco or any of the oher Metodo 3 men guilty of the illegal tape recordings at the Barcelona restaurant charged, brought to court and sentenced for their crimes?

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Dead fish flow with the current 
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Post by Tony Bennett 04.02.16 8:11

Ray_Sneek wrote:Was Francisco Marco or any of the other Metodo 3 men guilty of the illegal tape recordings at the Barcelona restaurant charged, brought to court and sentenced for their crimes?

@ Ray_Sneek

As far as I can see, No.

Several Metodo 3 men were certainly arrested - and Julian Peribanez and one other Metodo 3 detective were certainly remanded in custody for a while (see reports below).

However, it doesn't seem to me that there have been any court proceedings against anyone, none that I can find from an internet search, anyway.

Part of the reason for that is that under some continental systems of justice, a suspect is first arrested, maybe charged, but not brought straightaway before a court. Instead, an investigating judge is appointed who basically co-ordinates a police investigation, which may take a long time.

My interpretation of the reports below (from Joana Morais's site - thank you Joana roses) is that the corruption goes so deep in Spain that maybe the authorities are reluctant to bring proceedings, for fear of exposing all kinds of other corrupt practices or crimniality amongst top people in Catalonia. 

I take the following from the reports below:

1. Francisco Marco by his methods, despite being as corrupt as a rotten apple, was a powerful figure amongst the Barcelona 'top set' 

2. Metodo 3's Madeleine McCann investigation was described as a 'scam', e.g. with bogus invoices and obvious potential for money laundering

3. Corrupt former police and secret service officials seemed to regularly work for Metodo 3, including one (Francisco Paesa) who pretended he was dead (!) in order to work for Metodo 3  

4. Francisco Marco deliberately destroyed shedloads of evidence

5. Metodo 3 seems to have closed in November 2012.

+++

Major questions therefore arise from all this as to when and how Brian Kennedy appointed Metodo 3 to work for the McCann Team. As Kennedy in 2007 had for some years been spending 'half the year' in his Barcelona villa, and appears to have business interests in the area, a question arises as to whether, by 2007, he had perhaps known and dealt with Francisco Marco for many years previously   

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    
Two of the suspects, Julián Peribañez and Alex Borrequero, who are still in custody, told investigators that they recorded the conversation "on the boss's orders" at the La Camarga restaurant in Barcelona. The ruling Catalan nationalist CiU bloc has organized a special squad of investigators and court personnel to help those politicians or other citizens who feel that they may have been spied on.» 

Extract from El País, 19 Feb. 2013 

70.000 [per month] Euros for Madeleine's search

Método 3 grew with high-profiled media cases; their enemies label it as «scam agency» and now it's going to be a consultancy agency


by C. Morcillo/P. Muñoz

Each time a new chief of police arrived to Catalonia, one of the first invitations he would receive was that of Francisco Marco: a letter to invite him to have dinner at the restaurant “La Camarga”, which has been the hub of operations [spy activities] of the detective agency Método 3, near to its headquarters. The current police chief, Eugenio Castro, politely declined the invitation, however his predecessor and some of the previous ones shared table and cloth with the influential Marco, with a degree in Law and an expert in self-promotion. One of his mottoes is “let them speak about us, whether good or bad”, says one of his former colleagues.

Marco took to practice that popularity and in recent years his agency was a reference in the media, particularly after the parents of the British girl Madeleine McCann who disappeared in Portugal hired them to search her. Their hypothesis was that a paedophile ring had kidnapped her and in pursuit of that idea, according to the same sources, they charged about 70,000 euros [close to that amount per month], with continuous trips to Portugal, Morocco and Britain.

Ghost expenses

“It was a scam. They said they had fifteen people working on the case but no, there were just three. They made up invoices for hotel expenses and allowances for four people in the neighbouring country [Portugal] and only one person travelled there, who in addition didn't speak a word of Portuguese.”

Along with Madeleine's case - of which nothing was ever found - the fame reached Método 3 with the advent of the former secret service spy Francisco Paesa, who was “found” in Paris, after being presumed dead [he had published his own obituary].

Monitoring the vice-presidents of FC Barcelona and the involvement, which has yet to be clarified, of espionage of the current president of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio Gonzalez, are also included in the curriculum of this agency in which “thousands and thousands of euro have come in and no one know where they are”, says a detective who knows Método 3 track record.

Severance pay

The agency was created by Marita Fernández, the mother of Francisco Marco, in 1985. She had worked has a saleswoman for an Argentinian detective when she married her husband, a criminal lawyer. Since then they have lived years of success and constant commissions - although nothing to do with the 20,000 reports that were said to be destroyed by the director of Método 3 - to the point of giving work to other agencies and individuals (they subcontracted) and then signed themselves those jobs. Their wide list of staff included an accountant, and in recent years, a former policeman heading the IT department.

Juan Carlos Ruiloba was the chief of the Technological Crime Prevention unit at the Judiciary Police of Barcelona. Shifting to a second activity, he began working for Marco where he claimed he was very well paid.


A little over a year ago, when the agency started to be less the buoyant businesses that it had been, Ruiloba left Método 3. According to sources related to the investigation, part of the money that he was owed was recovered with electronic equipment. Last week this former police officer turn to his former colleagues at the Judiciary and handed material, supposedly “sensitive”. He had waited over a year to do so.

Out of hand investigations

He was not the only police officer connected to Método 3 director. In fact, during many years it was a common practice to resort to certain professionals, such as the Forensic Science Police [Lab], in order to do specific tests, particularly when they did not have any other means at their disposal.

The agency no longer exists officially since last November, in fact its director has several pending labour disputes with former employees. However Marco, with a curriculum and voluminous list of customers, was already converting their business into a security consulting firm, outside the police control to which detective agencies are subject.

Método 3 has also been inspected - inspection in the offices of detectives are annual - however he has eluded comfortably both administrative and criminal penalties. In 1995 his father, his mother, him and a brother were arrested for illegally tapping businessmen. In that case it was revealed that they had investigated the governor of the Bank of Spain, Mariano Rubio, and his wife Carmen Posadas. The investigation was filed.

In 2011, during a routine inspection, the Police detected serious irregularities, despite the proposed sanction, which arrived to Rubalcaba's Home Office - his brother has an excellent relationship with Marita Fernández - it was also unsuccessful.

In May last year the agency number two, Elisenda Villena, was arrested during the “Pitiusa Operation”* - in which hundreds of detectives and intermediaries were charged. The agency log book - mandatory where clients and those who are investigated are recorded, as well as the dates of the jobs carried out - disappeared, because it was lost in a “flood”, Método 3, again, was not penalized.

____________________

Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"

Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".  

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