Success Stories, Spanish Style
If any one person embodies the spirit of get-rich-quick Spain that was the essence of this country in the 1980's, that person is Mario Conde. He is the son of a Customs officer who has become a lawyer, economist, and one-time politician. He went from having a brilliant record at the Universidad de Deusto, to becoming the youngest president of the disappeared bank, Banesto, to being arrested and condemned for fraud and misappropriation. This week he has just been arrested for money laundering. His problems began while he was the president of Banesto. The bank began failing, and government inspectors wanted to know why. When they found out money was missing, they discovered that Mr. Conde had helped it to disappear. In various trials, between 1994 and 2002, he was condemned to different prison terms that amounted in all to twenty-six years, of which he spent in prison only five and a half. The money that had disappeared (a hefty amount of various millions of euros) remained missing...