Spanish police detain anti-capitalist 'Robin Hood'



Spanish police on Tuesday detained a man who fooled dozens of banks into lending him nearly half a million euros which he then used to fund an anti-capitalism magazine that was distributed for free last year.
Enric Duran, dubbed the "Robin Hood of the Banks" by the media, was detained on suspicion of faking documents and fraud at a Barcelona university, police said.



Spanish police detain anti-capitalist 'Robin Hood'
The 33-year-old had been on the run in South America since September last year when 200,000 copies of the single-issue magazine called La Crise which his swindle financed were distributed in the city by his supporters, the online edition of El Mundo reported.
In the magazine Duran explained in an article how he created fake pay slips which he then used to take out 68 personal loans from 39 banks totaling 492,000 euros (637,000 dollars) in an act of "financial civil disobedience".
"I stole 492,000 euros from those who steal the most from us to denounce and build an alternative society," he wrote in the magazine, which offered advice on how to deal with the economic slowdown.
He said he had given banks various fake reasons for seeking loans, from purchasing a car to renovating an apartment or buying audiovisual equipment for a non-existent firm.
Duran's detention comes on the same day that some 2,000 people across Spain distributed a magazine called "Podemos", or "We Can", which includes tips on how to stop making loan payments and "escape" the capitalist system.
"I have not returned to face a trial nor to flee from it. That is not important. I return from preventative exile to participate in a social movement that is becoming larger," El Mundo quoted him as writing in the magazine.
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Image from www.4to40.com.

Tuesday, March 17th 2009
AFP
           


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