September 18, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 17, 1429

MADRID, Sept 17: A man in Spain swindled nearly half a million euros (710,000 dollars) from dozens of banks to fund an anti-globalisation magazine distributed for free in Barcelona, a newspaper reported.

Enric Duran, 32, wrote in the magazine called La Crise (The Crisis) that he had created fake pay slips which he used to take out 68 personal loans from 39 banks beginning in 2006, the online edition of daily newspaper El Mundo said.

“I stole 492,000 euros from those who steal the most from us to denounce and build an alternative society,” El Mundo quoted him as writing in the magazine, which offers advice on how to face up to Spain’s economic slowdown.

“With a printer, a photocopier, scissors and glue, you can work wonders,” he added, calling his operation “a new form of civil disobedience”.

Duran has fled the country to avoid prosecution, El Mundo reported, citing sources close to the modern day Robin Hood.

He had given banks various reasons for seeking loans, from purchasing a car to renovating an apartment or buying audiovisual equipment for a non-existent firm.

Duran said he spent 360,000 euros directly on the production of the 200,000 copies of the sole edition of La Crise magazine with the remaining 132,000 euros going towards several other expenses such as taxes and commission.—AFP