Ex-king pays tax debts
Information will lead to new probes into the financial affairs of Juan Carlos I
FURTHER investigations into the tax affairs of the former king, Juan Carlos I, will be carried out by the public prosecution service, attorney general Dolores Delgado assured on Tuesday.
He has paid over €5 million to settle debts to the tax office in recent months.
The king emeritus – an honorary title granted to him by the government of exPrime Minister Mariano Rajoy in 2018 – paid €678,393 (including interest and charges) in December for a debt from 2016-2018 in relation to use of bank cards used by himself and relatives of his.
This is still being investigated and the money was paid after the account holder and alleged frontman, retired air force colonel Nicolás Murga testified to the prosecutor.
Then last week it was revealed that Juan Carlos had paid over €4.3 million out of €8 million in tax debts for profits from the Zagatka foundation, founded in 2003 by his distant cousin Álvaro de Orleáns-Borbón, to pay for private flights.
The organisation was allegedly used to hide illegal commissions, although Orleáns denies being a frontman for the ex-king and assured it was set up to continue his family tradition of helping European monarchies.
Zagatka allegedly hid millions of euros in shares of several Ibex 35 Spanish companies in two accounts with the Swiss banks Credit Suisse and Lombard Odier.
Other lines of investigation include possible commissions from the high-speed train (AVE) project to Mecca, which is expected to be shelved due to lack of evidence, and payments that could have benefited Juan Carlos and members of his family with a credit card for an account that was not in any of their names, plus at least one more.
Sra Delgado said ‘a large sum of money, which would have been unimaginable when the prosecution service investigations started’, has been paid back ‘in less than two months’. She said this money belongs to all Spaniards and insisted ‘we are all equal before the law’.
“Certainly these new settlements will give us data and force us to carry out new investigations and checks,” she added.
In response to accusations that the ex-king was receiving special treatment, the association of state treasury inspectors (IHE) advised that the repayments did not prevent the possibility of the prosecutor charging him with tax offences.