Tom Powell
SPANISH wifi provider Gowex has filed for bankruptcy after its former president admitted to fiddling company accounts.
Disgraced Jenaro Garcia Martin could be looking at more than 10 years in prison.
Charged with false accounting, distortion of economic and financial information and insider trading, Martin – now banned from leaving Spain – must pay €600,000 bail or prepare for jail.
The spectacular collapse of Gowex, which had contracts to provide free wifi in major cities such as Madrid and Paris, has raised new questions from foreign investors about the regulation of Spain’s stock markets.
The tech firm’s share price rose 60% from 2012 to 2013 on Spain’s Alternative Stock Market but is now all but defunct, with its major contracts over or cancelled.
That’s always the risk you take when buying shares in an alternative market as there are virtually no controls or supervision as well as having a very small market when you want to sell. Not worth the risk.