A key figure in one of Spain’s most notorious financial misconduct cases has been captured in the Algarve after nearly two years on the run.
Portugal’s PJ police, working closely with Spain’s Guardia Civil, arrested 55-year-old Natalio Grueso in Olhão on December 4 under a European arrest warrant for an eight-year prison sentence on charges of embezzlement and forgery.
The man – the former general director of the Óscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre in Avilés – was also the subject of an Interpol Red Notice and had been evading justice since late 2023. Spain’s Supreme Court had ruled him a central figure in the so-called “Niemeyer Case,” a scheme involving systematic misuse of public funds and falsified documents.
According to a statement released by the PJ, Spanish authorities proved that between 2006 and 2011, he diverted money from the cultural institution for his own benefit – and for that of family members and friends – using false documentation designed to give the transactions a veneer of legality.
Following his arrest in Olhão, the suspect was brought before the Évora Court of Appeal and now awaits extradition proceedings back to Spain.
