Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that Francisco “Fran” Nicolás Gómez Iglesias is much more than a mere criminal whose sheer luck helped him ride through his ordeals. This much has actually even been evidenced in Netflix’s ‘Little Nicholas: Life of a Scoundrel,’ which delves deep into how he infiltrated the highest levels of Spanish powers as a mere teen.
How Did Francisco Nicolás Earn His Money?
Although Francisco hails from a working-class neighborhood in Madrid, Spain, his ambitions never really aligned with that level due to his parents providing him with the best opportunities. They actually sent him to the renowned St. Francis of Assisi school in El Viso, which is where he realized his dream was to lead a life of luxury while surrounded by the affluent and elite. In fact, even when he got kicked out of this institute owing to bad grades, they ensured he could continue on his path by enrolling him into a school for athletes despite him not playing any sport.
That’s when Francisco truly began expanding his social circle, only to then utilize the same to kickstart his career as a Public Relations Personnel in nightclubs despite being a young teen. “I’d recruit two of the coolest people from each school,” he candidly revealed in the original production. “So I had a PR team of 60-80 people from the best schools in Madrid,” including kids of significant businessmen, politicians, plus famous individuals. Though he rather quickly “realized team club nights weren’t my thing. My thing was power. I consider power a drug that’s never-ending.”
At the age of 14, Francisco thus made his mother Maria del Carmen Iglesias take him to the People’s Party-affiliated Foundation for Analysis & Social Studies (FAES Foundation) and joined. Here, he employed the same strategy of recruiting influential youngsters to attend official seminars, just to expand his network further to rub his shoulders with the nation’s movers and shakers. In fact, per the docuseries, economist Jaime García-Legaz gradually grew into not only one of his closest confidantes but also his contact point for many more government officials over the years.
Francisco has hence since asserted he first met former Prime Minister José Aznar at 15, which was around the same time he became a collaborator for the national intelligence agency CNI. He has even claimed he was officially invited to King Felipe VI’s crowning before he evolved into a royal envoy and began enabling several economic, political, and social deals between different groups. He admittedly earned significant commissions through such exchanges, which then allegedly helped him promise people from all walks of life sizable business as well as expansion opportunities.
As per reports, law student Francisco played the cards of his apparent contacts in the Spanish Administration, government, and CNI for this, all the while hiring security to give himself some credibility. Moreover, he resided in an uber-luxurious home in the city, leased several fancy cars, plus got a hold of VIP sirens to reinforce his tales and make everything think thrice before doubting his standing. It thus comes as no surprise he was nicknamed El pequeño Nicolás (Little Nicholas) by the Spanish press once it came to light he was a fraud — he was arrested in Ribadeo in October 2014.
Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias Net Worth
Despite the fact Francisco has been convicted four times on various counts of bribery, disclosure of national/official secrets, identity theft, fraud, plus forgery, he’s not behind bars at the moment. Instead, following his appeal’s Supreme Court dismissal and while awaiting the Provincial Court’s decision on whether he’ll spend his sentence of 12 years 5 months behind bars, he’s expanding his wings. The former ‘Gran Hermano VIP’ star (Spanish version of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’) is actually establishing a career through NFTs at the moment, all the while hoping to build an international business as well as travel across the globe, indicating his net worth is likely in the range of $8 million as of writing.
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