I wouldn't hold Mondragon Corporation to a very high standard. Back in 2005-06 the company I worked in was intending to acquire Mondragon's wind turbine business (Ecotecnia). This was finally acquired by Alstom.
During the due diligence we saw the high level of political corruption, and terrorism financing Mondragon was involved in. Very distrubing. Once we saw this, we stopped looking at the acquisition.
"Financing terrorism" might need a little context. Terrorist band ETA had an extortion net that they called "revolutionary tax". People that refused to pay were threatened and often beaten, kidnapped or murdered.
So a lot of companies paid. Even if they had no sympathy for the criminals.
But there were other companies that didn't need much "convincing". Was this one of that kind? I have no idea.
Edit: oh, these are the owners of Eroski. I remember they were in the news a long time ago exactly for that. I don't remember how the trial ended, but some guy was definitely charged.
Got anything I can look at regarding the financing of terrorism? Wouldn’t that be extremely illegal and would absolutely need to be reported to the government?
The Mondragon Group already had some history of financing terrorism(1), but we didn't know affiliates outside the Basque Country could be involved. Ecotecnia was based in Barcelona.
That link describes how a MCC worker was taken into custody, being charged with some degree of terrorism collaboration. He got out on bail 2 days after. [1]
Caja Laboral was not involved and they even fired that worker sortly after his detention (next day). [2]
I fail to see how that link proofs that the "Mondragon Group already had some historry of financing terrorism".
By that measure you shouldn't really consider any of the large Spanish companies, as all of them have extremely close ties to francoism. At least for Mondragon they are a drop in the other bucket. Still, I would be very skeptical about these "terrorism financing", since the data you acquired was very probably massaged by the Spanish authorities to look as bad as possible.
I don’t know exactly what OP is referring to, but the Basque country in Spain is a region with certain separatist political actors that advocate/push for the independence of the Basque Country.
I didn't say that they were left wing terrorist, but I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that you were referring to their support of left wing political parties.
Again, I assumed that you are a conservative or libertarian. I apologise. I'm sorry that I just assumed you were a right winger.
You're an investor, it says so in your profile. Most of your comments have a fairly standard pro-markets anti-regulation view point. I was extrapolating that to be conservative but you could also be a liberal pro-markets type. So, my bad.
After doing some cursory googling, it looks like you were probably referring to the ETA. I would like to hear more about the terrorism and corruption, if you feel like going into it.
I have to admit, though, as an investor you and I see the world very very differently. If you don't mind me disagreeing with you I will try not to make any more assumptions.
What a weak and low effort post. This is not reddit. If you didn't find anything then that's were you should stop, otherwise you're only trying to entertain your biases and push them onto us.
They are the Spanish strike force! Largely irrelevant around here, until their fragile national unity is bruised and they all jump crying foul. Pretty funny when you see them for what they are.
During the due diligence we saw the high level of political corruption, and terrorism financing Mondragon was involved in. Very distrubing. Once we saw this, we stopped looking at the acquisition.