“Two little mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse did not give up. He struggled so much that he finally turned the cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, from this moment on I will be the second mouse,” says Frank Aganale Jr. in Steven Spielberg’s production, which he directed Leonardo Dicaprio AND Tom Hanks In Catch me if you can, the autobiography of Frank Abagnale Jr., a young man who posed as a pilot, doctor and lawyer for Pan American World Airways, and managed to raise millions of dollars in fraudulent money. Another little mouse that crawled out is Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias. The docuseries Thief: Little Nicholasrecently published in Netflix It is surprising that a 5-year-old child expressed the thousands of euros he would earn every day of his life and how he would come into contact with power in a natural way.
Produced by Capa España, specialized in investigative journalism, the chronology of the events that brought fame to a young man from Madrid is exposed, starting from his public relations activity in nightclubs at 14 years old, up to being key figure in the upper echelons of power at 25 years old. The three chapters expose unpublished material and first-person testimonies, as well as a team of spokespersons and investigators who contributed to the construction of a case currently in court, with risk of 12 years in prison for the climber.
“The case is a clear example of the cracks in the system,” he explains in an exclusive dialogue with Clarion one of the protagonists of the documentary, Irene Dorta Hermosocourt writer and researcher The independentand one of the journalistic investigators closest to the cause.
According to Irene, “Nicolás is a young man who, evidently, from an early age, has had different concerns from those of most children and initially approaches a political party, the PP (Popular Party), with which he begins to establish a relationship .” almost a working relationship, through young people, taking young people to party events, getting along with politicians, etc. And when this party wins elections, suddenly a young 19-year-old sees that many of the people he knew could do it.”
And he continues: “Then he grows up, enters the offices, talks with the elderly… He has certain contacts with the National Intelligence Center, but his recklessness, his youth, his ignorance perhaps, lead him to make a mess, to leave see”. and doing things he shouldn’t have done, lying, etc., which ends in his arrest.”
The case depicted in the miniseries “Pícaro: Little Nicolás” highlighted the details of power in Spain. Photo: Netflix-But his somewhat naive audacity and enjoyment of power have other consequences…
-The documentary also tells how his arrest brings to light the intricacies of the State, the war between the Police itself, the internal struggles at the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and with this, the case of Commissioner José Manuel comes Villarejo, he was also arrested three years later.
Few people connect that the fall of Nicolás was the beginning of the fall of Villarejo. (N. of the R: Villarejo was sentenced by the National Court to 19 years in prison for the crimes of revealing business secrets in the Ferro piece and of natural persons in the Terra piece, as well as falsification of a commercial document).
Confessed narcissism
Irene has a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid and a master’s degree in Journalism Journalism. Village. I work in SER. chain, Digital confidentiality AND The independent. Last year he joined a team of journalists who covered the Little Nicolás case for five months, which led to the making of the documentary. Summoned by Tomás Ocaña, director of the series, over the course of her career she followed some of the rehearsals of Little Nicolás.
The case became famous ten years ago, with a succession of events that included it falsification of academic documents, infiltration into Royal Family eventslike the coronation of today’s King Felipe VI and his alleged status as an agent of the National Intelligence Center (CNI). Between irregular arrests, police connivance and participation in the Spanish version of the reality show Big Brother VIPfor which he received 30,000 euros a week, Francisco Nicolás, imitated ad nauseam by all the media, continued to define himself as “the fucking master”.
“Francisco is just as you see him in the series,” says Irene. “Neither more nor less. He has the same attitude with or without cameras. He is a guy who is liked very much or very badly, but who undoubtedly knows how to beat the competition.” the people around him and this makes him go to places where only certain social skills take you.
But He is also a person who has no education and therefore has a number of shortcomings, which are evident. His personality has narcissistic undertones, according to what his psychiatrist said at trial, a condition that plays a very important role in the way he composes his reality. But I think she doesn’t have a bad background. Or at least from what we knew, she doesn’t have it, that’s what happens He lied so much that it is sometimes difficult to discern which part is true and which is not.. And this creates a big credibility problem.
Irene Dorta Hermoso, the journalist who participated in the investigation for “Pícaro: little Nicolás” spoke exclusively with Clarín. Photo: Netflix-So how do you differentiate one thing from another?
-The documentary tries to clarify which parts of what it tells are true and which are not. We were obsessed with that question: How much truth is there in a lie? The truth is that there are some things that we couldn’t finish fixing, because of time, space or because the protagonists didn’t want to talk or were simply lying. But there are some issues we shed light on, for example the coronation of King Felipe VI.
In the collective imagination it remained that Nicolás had snuck in, but the truth is that we hired an expert who confirmed to us that an official email from the Royal Family had sent an address to his email address with an invitation for the businesswoman Catalina Hoffman (who is the person who goes with him) and a companion. Hoffman claims she was invited herself, but as the documentary reflects, she was unable to provide her own invitation.
-The Netflix documentary shows short films from his childhood. There is a certain “super ego”, what do you think?
He is undoubtedly a child with different concerns than the average person. He is an only child, which may also have influenced the fact that all of his parents’ attention was focused on him. He has a predilection for mermaids, special missions, police officers, money… Fun which, moreover, his parents also encouraged. The documentation and editing team did a spectacular job to be able to unite all these images with which the viewer can get a very reliable idea of what Francisco’s childhood was like and from there understand a little about his adolescence.
The lie has short legs, but apparently it has wings. Image of “Pícaro: little Nicolas”. Photo: Netflix-Do you think he is a character who, without direct intentions, ended up revealing other, much deeper wrongs?
Yes I think His intention was never to reveal how the system works internally, but the fact that he was arrested changed everything. And once he was arrested and with many lawsuits pending, he began to tell what he knew. As I told you, not everything he says is true, but the evolution of his case and his investigation of him have served to understand some of the background of the State for which, seeing them, most viewers tell us they feel ashamed or embarrassment.
-What do you think are the puzzles that still remain unsolved in this plot?
There are many… For example, the activity of the entrepreneur Arturo Fernández (former president of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists of Madrid and of the Madrid Chamber of Commerce), with Nicolás, we do not fully understand; For example, the part that talks about the Alamedilla farm which the investigators identified as a place of money laundering on behalf of some entrepreneurs, but which was not adequately investigated at a judicial level. Or the specific relationship between Nicolás and the CNI, something that was very, very difficult to investigate.
Tried and convicted
– What is the current procedural situation?
-He was sentenced in four different trials to a total of 12 and a half years in prison. All of his convictions were appealed to the Supreme Court (the highest body of jurisdiction in Spain) and Until the sentences are ratified, he will not have to go to prison..
The first conviction for falsification of the DNI to support selectivity (university entrance exams) has already been ratified, but he is less than two years away in prison and, therefore, Spanish law allows him not to go to prison. But if they ratify a second conviction, he would have to end up in prison, where he has never been. The Supreme Court approved a trip to Ribadeo in which he presented himself as a liaison between the Royal Household and the Government. The debate took place at the end of last month, so the sentence is about to be dropped and, therefore, we will soon know whether or not he will go to prison.
Nicolás Gómez Iglesias faces a sentence of 12 and a half years in prison. Photo: Netflix-What is your personal appreciation for the character and process?
-I think he was a guy who made mistakes and got into trouble and did the wrong things, but also He was where he was because a lot of other people let him.
As Frank Abagnale Jr. would say, “people only know what you tell them.” Little Nicolas got tired of telling everyone what they wanted to hear.
Source: Clarin
