Francisco Paez has been called Spain's most daring spy. Credit: YouTube
Spanish superspy-turned-con 'died' for the second time after faking a previous death over two decades ago in an attempt to evade justice.
Francisco Paez, whose nicknames were 'super spy' and 'fox ”, died earlier this year at the age of 87, according to documents filed by the city hall of the Parisian suburb of Bois-Colombes.
Paez was known as the most notorious and daring spy in Spain's era of modern democracy, but fled the country in the mid-1990s after being involved in a high-profile embezzlement scandal involving the chief of police and the disappearance of public funds.
He faked an earlier death in 1998 and eventually fled to Luxembourg, fleeing a string of victims said to include Alexander Lebedev, a Russo-British businessman who bought the Evening Standard, who claimed Paeza was «the only person who all my life I have been able to deceive me.”
El Diario, a Spanish news website, reported that his new death certificate was issued by the French authorities in May.
Paezas are known to have fallen ill and the address listed as the place of death is that of a hospital.
Ms. Ratna Sari Devi Sukarno and Paesa in Monaco in 1973. Photo: Bridgeman Images
However, the nurse who signed the death certificate was Paesa's daughter, which sparked rumors that he might actually still be alive and an attempt to provoke another act of disappearance.
Paeza made his mark on the Spanish secret services in the 1980s.
He posed as an arms dealer to sell two Russian-made surface-to-air missiles to the Basque terrorist organization Eta, leading to the discovery of the largest the group's weapons cache thanks to hidden radar devices. inside the weapon.
“He also played a dark role in the GAL case, in which the Spanish government set up a group of assassins to extrajudicially kill Eta suspects.
But it was his alleged relationship with Luis Roldan, the former head of the Guardia Civil Police, that brought him into the spotlight.
Mr Roldan fled Spain in 1994 after siphoning 10 million euros from secret state funds security.
Mr. Paeza (center) faked his own death in Thailand in 1998. Photo: ridgeman Images
After 10 months on the run, Mr. Roldan was arrested in Bangkok, where Paeza allegedly sent him to launder money.
The former police chief was sentenced by a Spanish court to 28 years in prison. He later accused Paeza of storing booty.
In 1998, a death report appeared in the Spanish newspaper El País, marking Paeza's death in Thailand and announcing that the Gregorian chants of the monks in Burgos would save his soul for a whole month.
But six years. Then a picture of Paeza smoking a cigarette appeared in the local newspaper El Mundo, which showed that he was still alive.
“It didn't really help me; I just didn't care,» he said of being thought dead.
«The only person who could deceive me»
Paez is reportedly living in Luxembourg on an Argentinean passport and shares an office with his niece . , Beatriz García Paeza, attorney.
Among those who wonder if Paeza's death certificate is legitimate may be Mr. Lebedev, who sued a former spy for allegedly stealing $10 million in early 2000s.
Mr. Lebedev first sued Paez in Bahrain after he defaulted on half of a $20 million loan to set up a bank in an Arab state.
< p>He later turned his attention to Ms. Garcia Paesa in the courts of Luxembourg, but last year she won an appeal against a billionaire debt payment order.
“He is the only person who in my entire life succeeded in deceive me,” Mr. Lebedev said of Paez.< /p>
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