A millionaire hotel owner even listed by Forbes as one of the wealthiest men in Spain is being investigated for running an underage prostitution ring in the Canary Islands.
Eustasio Lopez Gonzalez, 68, is a millionaire Spanish hotel magnate listed by Forbes as one of the 100 most important businessmen in the country.
But now he is among six defendants named as being under investigation, with the others identified as Agustin Aleman Barreto, aka Yino – the alleged ringleader, Eugenio Hernandez de Leon, Antonio Dascenzo, Domingo Hernandez Tarajano, and Emilio Cabrera Caballero.
They are accused of being part of a network that tricked underage girls into prostitution as early as 2015 using a hostess and go-go dancer agency called ’18 Lovas’, which is alleged to have been a front for the child prostitution business.
The alleged criminal network is said to have operated all over Spain, according to an indictment released on Wednesday, 1st December.
Alleged ringleader Yino is charged with two counts of sexual assault, one count of penetration and one count of violence, nine for inciting the prostitution of minors, 14 counts of prostitution of minors and two of degrading treatment.
Eustasio Lopez Gonzalez has meanwhile been charged with two counts of prostituting minors.
According to indictment, the hotel businessman allegedly participated in a party in 2016 organised by Yino, in the Ayagaures area, in the south of Gran Canaria, at which two of the underage victims consumed alcohol along with eight other young adults and bathed naked in a pool.
It is alleged that after touching and kissing the girls in the pool, both Lopez and Hernandez chose the two with whom they wanted to have intercourse, “with full knowledge that they were minors or, at least, with total indifference to the possibility that this was the case.”
In total, 10 girls were allegedly initially offered EUR 50 (GBP 42.50) each, although the amount was later renegotiated and increased to EUR 100 (GBP 85), with a bonus if they had sex.
The girls were allegedly taken to an empty house where they were made to change clothes and given alcohol before they were taken to the meeting point with the client.
It is alleged that the defendants took advantage of the situation of vulnerability of all the victims, both because of their minority and because of the lack of family solidity and parental references.
The six defendants have been asked to post bail totalling EUR 1.26 million (GBP 1.1 million).
A court date has not yet been set.
