Sumith Prasad
Directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera, Netflix’s crime film ‘A Man of Action’ revolves around the true story of Lucio Urtubia, a Spanish anarchist who flees to Paris, France. After settling in the French capital, Lucio gets involved with an anarchist organization, which leads to his meeting with a famed anarchist named Quico Sabaté. Lucio joins Sabaté in robbing banks to help fellow anarchists, families of the political prisoners, and the anarchist cause. In reality, Lucio had robbed several banks, including the First National City Bank, presently known as Citibank. If you are eager to know more about how much money the anarchist robbed from these banks, you are at the right place!
How Much Money Did Lucio Urtubia Rob?
As per reports, Lucio Urtubia started robbing banks after meeting Quico Sabaté. Through Sabaté, Lucio learned about the plights of exiled families who resided in French cities like Toulouse, Perpignan, and Paris. Sabaté also reportedly introduced Lucio to the then-active CNT, a confederation of anarchist unions. They both reportedly robbed banks to support these families, anarchist organizations, and anarchist causes in general. If the Spanish film and Lucio’s interviews are to be believed, the Spanish anarchist didn’t even care about keeping a record of the money he robbed since whatever he robbed was spent for the propagation of anarchism without much calculation.
There aren’t any records of how much money Lucio garnered from banks by exchanging counterfeit dollar bills. Considering that Lucio apparently wanted to destabilize the capitalist system of the United States by devaluing the value of the dollar using his counterfeit bills, he might have produced a large stock of the same. But there aren’t any reports that confirm whether Lucio used the same. The most money Lucio garnered by robbing a bank is $20 million. He printed eight thousand sheets of traveler’s cheques, containing twenty-five cheques on each sheet, in the name of the First National City Bank.
Each forged cheque was of the value of $100. Since Lucio printed 200,000 cheques, it is believed that he managed to rob $20 million from the First National City Bank alone. Considering the other robberies, it can be around $25 million. Lucio never used these millions for his personal luxuries. In an interview, the Spanish anarchist made it clear that he didn’t keep a single peso on his own since he used the money for the anarchist causes. As per reports, Lucio and his accomplices used the money they robbed to destroy Francoism and the fascism that remained in Europe. In addition, the money Lucio robbed also reportedly reached Latin American guerrilla organizations/movements like Montoneros (Argentina), Tupamaros (Uruguay), etc.
From Forgery to Freedom: The Price of Lucio Urtubia’s Deal
Lucio Urtubia was eventually arrested by the French authorities for robbing the First National City Bank using forged traveler’s cheques. After his arrest, Lucio offered a deal to the bank. He informed them that he would hand over the counterfeit plates used to produce the forged cheques and the remaining unused cheques if they dropped their charges against them. He also demanded compensation to stop targeting the bank. Since the counterfeited plates can be used to print more cheques by Lucio’s accomplices even if he got convicted, the First National City Bank accepted the deal.
As per an interview with Lucio, the First National City Bank paid him “40,000,000 francs of the time.” Since a dollar was worth 5.4346 francs in 1981, the year Lucio was arrested, the bank apparently paid him around $7.36 million for putting an end to his and his accomplices’ use of forged cheques.
Read More: Is A Man of Action’s Monsieur Barrow Based on a Real Banker?
