The scandal occurred at a time when there was a need to attract productive investment to Asturias because of a declining industrial structure.
[1] In October 1992, Jean-Maurice Lauze stated he was sent by the Saudi International Bank as a French intermediary to negotiate with the government of Asturias.
His proposal was to make an investment of up to 100,000 million pesetas to build an oil refinery near the port of El Musel in Gijón.
A week after the announcement, and following an investigation by three of its editors, the newspaper Gijón Trade stated the project was a fraud.
A government spokesman suggested that the plan may have been conceived to discredit the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).