20 June 2017

Consell Superior de Justicia

AD500 Andorra la Vella
Andorra

Re: Unjust Search of the Residence and Offices of Ramon Cierco Noguer
and Higini Cierco Noguer

Dear Sirs:

We write to express our profound concern with the blatant lack of fairness and justice in
the Andorran justice systems treatment of our clients, Ramon Cierco Noguer and Higini Cierco
Noguer. The most recent search of our clients homes and offices, and seizure of their personal
effects and confidential communications, is the latest example of the Andorran justice systems
abandonment of the rule of law and willingness to violate rights provided by the Andorran
Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, this indiscriminate
raid took materials that intrude on the attorney-client privilege and other privileged and private
communications for which there can be no legitimate law enforcement rationale.

It is incumbent on this body to exercise its authority and restore the rule of law within the
judicial bodies it oversees. The absence of immediate action will confirm to the rest of the world
that Andorra is not a country that respects the rule of law, the professional privileges attaching to
communications between lawyers and clients or defends the basic rights of its citizens. The
Andorran justice system is demonstrating itself to be rife with political cronyism, arbitrary action
and lack of respect for rights guaranteed by the ECHR. We ask that you intervene immediately
and correct this profound injustice before further irreparable harm is done to the image of the
Andorran justice system. Failing that we will be forced to document these fundamental flaws
directly with international judicial authorities.

As an initial and emergency step, we demand that you order the immediate return of all
material seized from our clients (and any copies electronic or otherwise); order that the
authorities maintain the confidence of those materials to the extent they have reviewed them or
created summaries of them; and empower truly independent investigators and judicial officers
that will ensure a fair and just approach to legal claims by and against our clients.

On 8 June 2017, an Andorran judge ordered the search of our clients homes and offices
as well as seizure of their private communications. The order was apparently in response to a
complaint by the Pujol Ferrusola family, which is accused of wide-spread money laundering and
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20 June 2017
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public corruption involving tens of millions of Euros. According to indicted members of the
Pujol family, our clients had somehow violated their privacy by turning over documents to
Spanish authorities. While there is no evidence whatsoever that our clients have done anything
other than offer their proper and legitimate cooperation to Spanish authorities (cooperation they
have offered the Andorran and American authorities as well) the Andorran justice system has
seen fit to seize on this baseless accusation and order an unjust invasion of our clients privacy
and legal rights.

First, the search was politically motivated. It is well-known that the Ciercos have
attempted to enforce their rights against the illegal nationalization of their bank by the current
government, a nationalization that has cost many Andorrans their jobs and frustrated depositor
access to their savings. Approximately one year ago, Higini Cierco, an Andorran citizen,
denounced under oath the illegal extortion committed by Spanish authorities and this government
did nothing.

A few weeks ago, Josep and Oleguer Pujol, currently under indictment for money
laundering and the suspected beneficiaries of public corruption, make rambling self-serving
declarations to a politically one-sided online news publication in which, among other things,
Oleguer Pujol compares his indicted father to the Dalai Lama. The self-serving statements are
little more than a desperate attempt to distract the public from the charges of public corruption
and money laundering for which they have been unable to present anything short of a laughable
defense.

In that press interview he accuses the Ciercos of transferring secret documents

demonstrating his familys money laundering to the Spanish authorities and the Andorran
judicial system seizes on these desperate allegations and immediately orders a disproportionately
aggressive and invasive search and seizure of the Ciercos property. Did the Pujols travel to
Andorra to make a declaration under oath stating that the purported documents are false? No, yet
the Andorran judicial authorities see fit to order an invasive search and seizure.

Indeed, according to media reports, the Andorran authorities have travelled to Madrid to
question Spanish anti-corruption authorities as to the extent of the Ciercos cooperation with
them but have not bothered to make a single telephone call, ask a single question or review a
single document when the allegation, made under oath in Andorra, is extortion by Spanish public
officials on Andorran soil. The patent unfairness of, and political motivation behind, the
disparate treatment is apparent to all.

Second, the search was wholly disproportionate to the purported crime and conducted in
an unprofessional and illegal manner. According to media reports, one of the officers conducting
the search is the son of the very lawyer the Pujol family hired to make the baseless allegations
against the Ciercos. There is an obvious conflict of interest. Police authority must be exercised
in an impartial way which plainly did not occur here.
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20 June 2017
Page 3

Further, no effort was made to limit the search to material related to the allegations of
violating the Pujols bank secrecy. The officers seized personal communications between
Ramon and Higini Cierco and their families. They seized communications protected by the
attorney-client privilege. Indeed, the vast majority of the approximately 38,000 communications
seized by the Andorran authorities have absolutely nothing to do with the baseless, self-serving
allegations made by the Pujols. Yet, the Andorran authorities have made no effort to limit their
search. This unjust approach can only be understood to be an effort to intimidate the Ciercos
from continuing to press enforcement of their legal and constitutional rights.

This most recent abuse of authority cannot be allowed to stand uncorrected. The Ciercos
will continue to assert their rights against this and other abuses by the Andorran government and
judicial authorities. We hope you will fulfill your legal duty in this regard but we will certainly
press our claims before international bodies in order to ensure that Andorra cannot continue to
treat its citizens with such disregard for the law.

Sincerely,

Eric L. Lewis
Manuel S. Varela
Aaron T. Wolfson