Ray, the false guru of Biden: “I have the email of my candidacy for the Nobel … I would have to look for it”

Ray Cazorla, the former Civil Guard from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with high school studies who has invented a fake biography that includes consultancies for Joe Biden and Barack Obama, the address of a non-existent university, degrees from other equally untraceable study centers and a fictitious candidacy for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, he answered by phone to El Confidencial this Tuesday. The interview was carried out before the news that has uncovered his deceptions was published. Ray thought at first that the goal of the conversation was to gloss over his supposed achievements, as he had done in other interviews before, but the tone of his voice changed after the first few questions and he chose to modulate his fantasies. This is the transcript of the 16 minutes that the call lasted.

QUESTION. How did you get to Washington? What training does it take to become an advisor to a president of the United States? What do you have to do to get so high?

ANSWER. A few years ago I decided to go to the United States to undertake a project in the field of education. And I went to New York and set up a small project there, in theory, to start training the Hispanic community. To teach, above all, for people in the Hispanic community who did not speak English. After that project a foundation was born and little by little we have been building a little the project that it is today. But, well, I don’t consider myself a personality or anything. What happens is that there are events that are made public in one way or another and make you stand out in the limelight.

[Como contó El Confidencial este miércoles, Ray asegura en todas sus apariciones que es director de su propio centro universitario, el Hispanic American College, que supuestamente cuenta con una escuela de negocios. Los logotipos de esa entidad y de una institución vinculada, el Inspiring Committed Leaders (ICL), salen en la mayoría de sus apariciones públicas y se refiere continuamente a ellas en las entrevistas que concede, pero solo hay una dirección que conduce a un despacho de un edificio de ‘coworking’ de Nueva York].

“After that project a foundation was born and little by little we have been building a little the project that it is today”

Q. Is that school in New York?

R. No, now we have just established a field in Galicia.

Q. Where?

R. In the city of A Coruña.

P. And in New York you no longer have anything?

A. No, not anymore.

Q. What training do you have to be able to function in this way? Did you study in the United States? In Spain?

R. Well, I have done a lot of training. I have done courses with Cambridge, project management, or International Relations courses. And I have also been trained in the field of business. I come from being a civil servant, I asked for a leave of absence. And I did training that could help me in the field of the company. I have a lot of training in that regard.

“There are positions that have been given to me that do not have much relevance or that are institutions, like another that made me an honorary doctorate”

Q. I have seen on your social networks, on your LinkedIn profile, that you are an honorary doctor from a Los Angeles university. That’s true?

R. Well, there are many positions that have been given to me that do not have much relevance or that are institutions, like another that made me an honorary doctorate, which is a European institute of economics or … I don’t know. I don’t know the institution very well. But they are not academic titles. They are honorary titles.

[En contra de lo que dice, en su perfil de LinkedIn y en las entrevistas, insiste una y otra vez en que es director honoris causa del Instituto de Desarrollo de Los Ángeles en Trabajo Social. No existe ninguna institución con ese nombre, pero hay otro con una denominación similar, el Instituto de Desarrollo de Los Ángeles, que otorga títulos a cambio de un donativo. También dice que es doctor honoris causa “de la prestigiosa Escuela Europea de Ciencias, Economía y Humanidades“. Tampoco hay ninguna institución educativa con ese nombre ni con ningún otro parecido].

Q. You also say that you are a professor at UCAM in Murcia.

A. It is an honorary title. I am not a professor.

P. On the other hand, there are several interviews in which you declare yourself an advisor to Biden. Exactly what role have you performed in your Administration? How did you get to know him?

A. No, no. That is a mistake that has always materialized in different interviews. I have done practically nothing. I have taken advantage of some space that we had in the Hispanic community to support the campaigns, but as a volunteer. I have not advised anyone. Somehow that came out, but by mistake. I believe that other times they confuse me with Juan Verde, who has advised the Obama Administration. Coincidentally, we are the two canaries. But in no case have I worked for the Biden Administration.

[Algunos de esos artículos seguían colgados este miércoles. Ray nunca llamó para corregir el supuesto error. En realidad, fue él mismo quien proporcionó esa información inventada].

Q. So you don’t work for Biden, or for Obama, or for Hillary Clinton?

A. No, no. No way.

Q. But that puts it in your book, ‘Inspiring Engaged Leaders.’ It says it clearly on the flap of your own book.

R. What? That I have worked for them?

Q. Yes, yes. Puts.

R. No, I have collaborated to the best for them in a specific event.

P. But it is that it puts it in the book that you yourself have edited.

R. No, it may be that I have collaborated. As we have done events and I have been with Obama …

[Ray se refiere a la visita de Barack Obama a Madrid en 2018 para asistir a la I Cumbre de Economía Circular, un evento organizado por Juan Verde. Ray se comprometió a recaudar fondos para financiar el acto, pero nunca aportó ni un solo euro. Pese a ello, Juan Verde le permitió hacerse una foto con Obama que Ray ha difundido por todas partes para tratar de apuntalar su falsa relación laboral con el expresidente de Estados Unidos].

Q. I read you the flap of your own book, ‘Inspiring committed leaders’, in 2019: “Renowned social activist. He works internationally in various fields. He has worked and collaborated with Barack Obama, Bernardo Kliksberg [economista argentino considerado el padre de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa], Kathleen Kennedy … ”.

R. I keep working with Kliksberg because we edited a book for him, invited him to a summer school …

Q. Yes …

R. But in the case of Obama, I have collaborated with him in an event he did.

P. But collaborate how?

R. Well, I was part of an event that was held in Madrid. It had a specific function, to train leaders in a specific matter. And I had the opportunity to collaborate with him on that project.

[Como publicó este diario este miércoles, Ray solo estuvo con Obama los siete segundos que tardó en sacarse la fotografía que pasea por sus redes sociales].

Q. You also say in your book that ‘Forbes’ ranks you as one of the five most influential Hispanics in the United States. You mean it literally. But I have not found any ‘Forbes’ article that mentions you or your university.

A. Four or five years ago, ‘Forbes’ broke a story after we did an event in New York. It was very new to have an event in Spanish speaking. And I think that’s where the error comes from. I have never published or said anything like that.

Q. Yes, you say it in interviews. Continually. And so does your own book on the flap.

A. No.

Q. Yes it does. Is not true?

A. No, no. It’s not that it’s not true. You know what the media are like.

P. But it is that the media does not say. You say it.

R. But do I say that in the book?

Q. Yes, of course. You say it in the book edited by yourself. “‘Forbes’ magazine ranks him as one of the five most influential Hispanics in the United States.”

R. Well … [silencio]

“Well, there was a nomination. It came to me for a project that we did in New York … that we brought together the daughter of Martin Luther King”

Q. I wanted to ask you about another matter. You say you have been a candidate for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. Is that true?

A. Well, there was a nomination. It came to me from a project we did in New York … daughter of Martin Luther King... and a number of personalities. And from there an instance came to me, that they had proposed that project so that it was channeled to that … But I don’t know anything else.

[En 2020, Ray concedió decenas de entrevistas para dar a conocer que había sido nominado al Premio Nobel de la Paz y ese aspecto de su falsa biografía se convirtió en uno de los que más sacaba a relucir].

Q. But that email, was it sent to you by the Swedish Academy of the Nobel Prize, or was it sent to you by other people?

A. No, no. They sent it to me. I mean, I have an email like I had been nominated.

Q. How did the Swedish Academy nominate you?

A. That, yes.

Q. What happens is that the Nobel Peace Prize is not awarded by the Swedish Academy. It is the only one delivered in Norway. It is given by the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

A. Yes, well. I don’t know if it’s the Swedish Academy or … the Academy … of the awards. Anyway, you ask me very questions … I thought it was a more cordial interview …

P. Well, I have seen that many media have echoed things that probably interested you more and that are very striking, but there are many data from your biography that catch my attention. Turns out, you’re not an advisor to Biden. That the university is not in the United States. That ‘Forbes’ is also a lie. I wanted to know if the Nobel Peace Prize is true. I do not understand how an email can reach you because it is never revealed who is a candidate for a Nobel, never.

R. Well, an email came to me saying that my candidacy had been submitted because of what we had done in New York.

“I have the email from the Academy. I have to look it up … But I did receive an email … What happens is that now I don’t remember very well”

Q. But was the email from the Nobel Academy or someone who had proposed to you?

R. I have the email from the Academy. I have it out there. I have to look it up … But I did receive an email … What happens is that now I don’t remember very well.

Q. I wanted to ask you about another operation. I understand that you have an agreement with Vocento to bring Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton to Spain.

R. Well, look, that is not me. It is run by the foundation, the ICL. And I can’t tell you anything about that.

Q. But is it your foundation?

A. Yes, yes.

“That is not me. It is run by the foundation, the ICL. And I can’t tell you anything about that.”

[Vocento pagó 250.000 euros a Ray para que trajera a España a Michelle Obama o Hillary Clinton y asistieran a alguno de los eventos que organiza el grupo editorial, pero el compromiso no solo no se ha cumplido, sino que Ray se niega a devolver el dinero].

Q. You said at the beginning that before starting university in New York you were living in the United States, but I understand that, in reality, you lived in the Canary Islands and were dedicated to the restaurant sector.

A. Yes, well, it’s true. Before I have had other projects, also restaurants, publishing houses …

Q. And how did those restaurants go?

R. Well, that is not relevant.

[Como contó este diario este miércoles, Ray montó varios restaurantes con otros socios que le acusan de quedarse con dinero. También puso en marcha una franquicia de restaurantes y se aprovechó presuntamente de inversores que confiaron en él].