Fugitive El Salvador businessman spotted near Geneva

The suspect has been registered as residence of the town of Morges on Lake Geneva Keystone

A controversial multimillionaire, wanted in El Salvador for corruption and fraud, has fled to Switzerland.

Enrique R., who has dual Swiss and El Salvadoran nationality, officially took residence in a town on Lake Geneva last April, three months after escaping the central American country where he was under house arrest, according to the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger and the El Salvador online platform Revista Factum.

The 65-year-old suspect is also being investigated by the United States authorities over illegally registering planes and alleged drug smuggling.

His lawyers have dismissed all allegations as unfounded. The man is active in the petrol industry and in waste management, but he also invests in the Swiss property business, according to the Tages-Anzeiger.

The Swiss justice authorities had received no request for legal assistance, said a report in Wednesday’s edition of the newspaper.

As a rule, Switzerland does not extradite its citizens to other countries. But observers say it is possible for a Swiss prosecutor to take over the investigations from El Salvador.