LGBTI Migrant Aid Group in Spain Shuts Down Amid Embezzlement Scandal

On July 25, "some employees contacted me and told me that the financial situation was bad and I tried to get in touch with the president, Samir Bargachi. When I called him and told him about the situation, he said we would talk about it the next day, but he disappeared," explains Jesús Ortega, treasurer and interim president of the NGO, to Infobae. That same day, he goes to the bank to check the accounts. But the next day, he checks the account again and notices a hole of 2,000 euros. That’s when he decided to close the account and withdraw the remaining amount (about 1,800 euros), then informed the lawyers of the Global-Law firm.

Bargachi is missing. He does not answer calls or messages. Faced with this silence, "we started investigating and we estimate that the possible embezzlement could exceed 200,000 euros. We think it was done little by little," details the interim president of the NGO, deploring the fact that Bargachi does not want to "give explanations" about this situation, which has led the association to dismiss him for several reasons, including the absence of his work for more than three consecutive days, the "embezzlement of 208,580 euros since April 2021". This dismissal as well as the reasons mentioned were notified to him in writing in a letter, after an extraordinary session of the board of directors held in August.

Bargachi "did not attend this meeting, in addition, he does not want to give us the passwords of the social networks, nor of the users," explains Jesús, specifying to have "filed a complaint with the Mossos so that they close these accounts because, apparently, he continues to scam subscribers, he may have already taken 2,000 euros." Another complaint is added to others that have already been filed, including one before the Plaza Castilla court. The association has decided to close for economic reasons. "Kif Kif cannot survive economically, otherwise we would continue. The abyss is so deep that we cannot do otherwise," he regrets.

The NGO has provided psychological support to hundreds of LGBTI migrants and refugees, making housing available to them. "There are transsexual people who are forced to live with a family of Syrian refugees and coexistence is not easy," recalled Jesús Ortega, indicating that the dissolution process will be carried out "in the next five or six months," pending future judicial decisions.