Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

A few days ago the Guggenheim Bilbao was forced to fire their own finance director (CFO) who confessed to having embezzled half a million euros from the museum. The Guggenheim inaugurated its futuristic site in Bilbao in 1997. From then on, the museum has on average attracted a million visitors annually. Since its opening day, Roberto Cearsolo Barrenetxea was head of the finance division with high responsibility tasks in directing the museum. The decision to expel Cearsolo was reached following verifications that led them to confirm his involvement in illegally laundering a significant amount of money from the Guggenheim’s coffers.
The matter remained hidden for years despite the fact that it involved half a million dollars. This is actually a ridiculous amount compared to the museum’s pretty substantial annual budget. Even the auditors and the management controls had also let slip these figures that didn’t seem to account for it. In this way, for almost ten years the finance director could act undisturbed. The company funds were deducted in small amounts that was used by two companies joined to the holding company that manages the Guggenheim: the first is the owner and manager of museum collections; the second is the head of the building and of various real estates.
The problem was brought to light at the start of April only following a demand for verifications brought to the Guggenheim by a regional finance tribunal that began to question those financial transactions that turned out were neither justified nor documented by the museum. At this point, the museum took the opportunity to carry out an internal audit, which confirmed the situation. Realising this fact, the directors alerted their lawyers and a legal case was opened against the CFO for financial irregularities.
The director of the Guggenheim Bilbao, Juan Ignacio Vidarte declared that three days after receiving juridical information from the museum, a letter was sent via his lawyer. In the letter, the now ex-finance director confessed all of his guilty actions. Together with the letter he also sent a check for about 290,000 euros, as a part refund for what was missing. He also vowed to repay the missing amount in three months and offered his maximum collaboration to the authorities dealing with the case.
From what he himself admitted, it would seem that the illegal activities begun since 1998. Even in a difficult situation, Cearsolo didn’t fail to show his worthiness in the accounting field, calculating the amount of money that was kept from the company to amount exactly to €486,979,38. He furthermore explained how he was able to get away with it till now, altering bank reports and falsifying signatures so that he avoided internal controls on the part of the certified company. Many of the companies used in the fraud were exclusively financial instruments and did not have their own dedicated staff; therefore, Cearsolo was also responsible for them. The confirmed facts have now pushed the museum to programme greater financial verifications even if the managers label the situation as an isolated case.