Spanish reputation laundering agency Eliminalia ran online influencer campaigns for clients in over 50 countries
The leaked internal files of the Spanish company revealed, among other things, that Swiss bank CBH likely paid Eliminalia’s Italian partner to remove an OCCRP investigation into the bank’s ties to the offshore firms of Russian billionaire Alexei Krapivin.
Spanish influence-management firm Eliminalia is part of a growing industry of contracted disinformation, through which unscrupulous individuals – from criminals to kleptocrats – cover up a dark past.
The company has helped clean up the reputation of more than 1,400 clients, including those convicted or accused of various crimes, from drug dealing to fraud.
Eliminalia uses a variety of unethical methods to silence criticism of customers, from intimidating journalists to publishing fake news.
The company forged copyright infringement notices and manipulated the right to be forgotten laws, which are supposed to protect people from harmful material on the Web.
This became known thanks to the leak of Eliminalia internal documents, which were shared by the French non-profit publication Forbidden Stories as part of the #StoryKillers project, dedicated to exposing international networks of disinformation and fake news.
Below is a summary and overview of the main findings of the investigation. Read the main version in English here.
Eliminalia was founded by Spaniard Diego Jimenez Sanchez, who was a victim of sexual abuse as a child and decided to erase references to this episode from the Internet.
Eliminalia’s official beneficiary, Diego Sanchez, who now likely lives in Georgia, has previously said he controls a vast network of businesses, including Subrogalia, a Ukrainian surrogacy company that is under investigation for alleged child trafficking.
The leak revealed that the network, which includes at least 54 companies in nine jurisdictions, may also be controlled by José María Il Prados, convicted of sexually abusing the then-underage Sanchez.
Spanish cybersecurity law enforcement officials believe that the beneficiary of Eliminalia is Il Prados, but did not provide evidence.
In November 2022, shortly after journalists began to take an interest in Sanchez, Eliminalia changed management, and at the end of December the company was renamed iData Protection SL
Eliminalia was hired to get rid of an OCCRP investigation into the connection of the Swiss bank CBH with the offshore companies of Russian businessman Alexei Krapivin
In 2019, OCCRP editors received a notice of violation of EU data protection rules. The letter was received from [email protected] is one of the domains from which Eliminalia sent out legal threats to various media outlets, many ostensibly on behalf of Raul Soto, member of the European Commission from Brussels. Qurium experts analyzed the source code of one of the letters and revealed that it was sent from an IP address in Ukraine, where Eliminalia was based before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.
The leak revealed that CBH had apparently hired Eliminalia’s Italian partner, ReputationUp, to seek removal of an OCCRP investigation that $277 million had flowed into CBH’s accounts from offshore companies linked to Alexei Krapivin. According to the leaked data, CBH bank transferred 229 thousand euros to Eliminalia for the work of ReputationUp.
Charles Henride Beaumont, a former CBH manager who worked with the bank’s Venezuelan clients, hired the Spaniards to remove material he objected to.
The company copied OCCRP’s “Venezuela Falls Into Darkness” investigation into a fake news site, Noticias-Politica.com, claiming it had come out earlier, and sued OCCRP under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Experts say that with the help of such lawsuits, it is possible to exclude the original article from the search results.
As Qurium’s analysis showed, Noticias-Politica.com is just one of about 600 fake sites that Eliminalia has registered and filled with materials from publications such as The Daily Mail or Le Parisien, removing client names from them or fake positive articles about them.
In Mexico, the Spaniards used scare tactics to eliminate a client article
In January 2018, Mexican journalist Daniel Sanchez received a phone call from a man named Humberto Herrera Rincón Gallardo, who said he represented Eliminalia, and asked that a recent investigation into suspicious transactions between the state governor and video surveillance company Interconecta be removed so that the latter would not lose profits.
Shortly thereafter, Facebook cloned the Página66 account where the journalist works, and began publishing fake articles on his behalf, as well as distributing photos of Sánchez and other reporters, activists and politicians on social networks with the caption “enemies of the government.”
The leak revealed that Gallardo was representing Eliminalia Grupo client Altavista, the parent company of Interconecta. In April 2019, she paid the Spaniards about $13,000 to remove 13 links mentioning their firm, including an article by Sanchez. In 2020, hosting company Digital Ocean took down the Página66 portal after Gallardo filed a copyright complaint.
An investigation by Articulo19 found that similar tactics were used against other journalists in Mexico and Central America, with at least one case also linked to Eliminalia.
According to the leak, more than 1,400 clients have contacted Eliminalia, including those convicted or charged with crimes ranging from drug dealing and sexual assault to fraud and money laundering.
Italian company Area SpA paid Eliminalia at least €100,000 to remove 72 U.S. fines for supplying equipment to the sanctioned Syrian government.
Malkhas Tetruashvili, who laundered money for Russian-Georgian crime boss Tariel Oniani, transferred 30,000 euros to Eliminalia for the removal of 79 links to unfavorable content.
Eliminalia received 15,600 euros from Antonio Herrero Lazaro, who was convicted in Spain in 2014 for being involved in a prostitution ring, for the removal of 18 articles about his offences.
Convicted drug dealer José Mestre Fernandez transferred about 30,000 euros to Eliminalia between 2016 and 2020.
Higini Sierko and Ramon Sierko, former co-owners of Banca Privada d’Andorra, transferred almost 245 thousand euros to Eliminalia from 2016 to 2020 – it is not known whether these were their personal funds or bank funds – in order for the company to get rid of articles that say that the bank was under investigation on charges of laundering money for criminal gangs.
In 2021, OneCoin paid Eliminalia €38,000 on behalf of the Steinkeller brothers, who are accused of running a cryptocurrency scam.
In some countries, Eliminalia cooperates with law firms and even opens new businesses in partnership with its own clients.
To work with clients from Italy, the Spaniards hired reputation management company Digitallex, whose shareholders have been under investigation since July 2021 for money laundering, fictitious bankruptcy and tax evasion. Digitallex controls another Eliminalia client, the law firm Studium Srl.
In 2015 Enea businessman Angelo Trevisan approached Eliminalia in connection with bankruptcy allegations. In 2017, he founded Eliminalia Holding Sa and several other firms to deal with Spaniards in Switzerland and Italy. In 2018, Trevisan stopped working with Eliminalia and renamed one of the entities under his control, Eliminalia Italia Srl, Ealixir (which also provides content removal services).
OCCRP journalists tried to contact the beneficiaries and potential customers of Eliminalia
Diego Jimenez Sanchez and Jose Maria Il Prados ignored our requests for comment.
Eliminalia’s lawyers declined to answer questions for the investigation, saying they would not disclose clients’ trade secrets. They accused journalists of bias: “The focus and content of most of the questions indicate a biased and unfair approach to work.”
A CBH lawyer said the bank’s management did contact ReputationUp, but were unaware of the company’s connection to Eliminalia. “CBH will not tolerate anyone engaging in illegal activities on their behalf,” he said in a statement.
Former Eliminalia partner Enea Angelo Trevisan did not respond to requests for comment.
Area SpA told OCCRP that it hired Eliminalia to legally remove material, many of which were untrue or contained unsubstantiated allegations against the company.
A lawyer for the Sierko family said his clients would not hire a company that uses unethical tactics in their work.
Malkhas Tetruashvili, Antonio Herrero Lazaro, Jose Mestre Fernandez and the Steinkeller brothers did not respond to requests for comment.
