Juan Carlos embroiled in bank sale scandal
Documents show cousin of ex-monarch took payment of millions in Barclays deal for Banco Zaragozano
THE former king of Spain is facing new questions about his wealth as The Sunday Telegraph reveals his cousin and close confidant was allegedly paid millions of pounds in commission for the disastrous sale of a Spanish bank to Barclays.
According to documents obtained by this newspaper, Álvaro d’OrleansBorbón, cousin of Juan Carlos I, pocketed up to 50million Swiss francs (£39million) as the middle man for the sale of Banco Zaragozano to Barclays Bank of London.
But the commission payment raises further doubts over Juan Carlos, who was accused of accumulating a secret fortune hidden in Swiss bank accounts under the name of his cousin.
Details of the cousins’ alleged deals, revealed in documents for the first time today, have led to calls in Spain for greater transparency over the origins of the former king’s wealth.
“We read in Forbes that Juan Carlos has a personal fortune of €1.8billion [£1.4billion], and we don’t know what the origin of that fortune is. It certainly could not have come from the state budget allowance,” Fran Pérez, the international spokesman for the United Left party, which is part of Spain’s coalition government, told The Sunday Telegraph in light of the findings.
“But what we do know makes it absolutely necessary that there is transparency regarding the former head of state’s income.”
Barclays bought Banco Zaragozano in 2003. According to documents from Credit Suisse, Mr d’Orleans-Borbón owned a fund to hold “commission received in connection with the bringing together of stakeholders” for the sale.
There is no mention of any such commission on the Spanish CNMV stock market watchdog website, where all paperwork has to be published as Zaragozano was a listed company before being absorbed by Barclays. Mr d’Orleans-Borbón, 72, a resident of Monaco, is known to be a close friend of Juan Carlos. Allegations of their relationship were revealed by Juan Carlos’s alleged former lover.
In a 2015, leaked recording of a conversation with a former Spanish police officer in London, Corinna zu SaynWittgenstein, a 56-year-old German-born socialite and former adviser to Prince Albert of Monaco, claimed that Juan Carlos, 82, held bank accounts in Switzerland in the name of his cousin. “They have put some things under the name of his cousin, who is Álvaro d’Orleans-Borbón. The accounts in Swiss banks have been put under his name,” Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein said.
She also accused Juan Carlos of taking his share of an €80million kickback for a Spanish high-speed rail deal with Saudi Arabia.
The new claims are likely to feed discontent at the opacity surrounding the former king. Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 after scandals had rocked the monarchy. His son and head of state, Felipe VI, is now struggling to contain a secessionist movement in Catalonia.
Gabriel Rufián, spokesman for the
‘What we do know makes it absolutely necessary that there is transparency about the head of state’s income’
Catalan Republican Left in Spain’s Congress, told The Sunday Telegraph that his party has demanded a public investigation into the former king’s finances. We have always received the same answer: either vagaries or silence.
“We are not surprised, therefore, that another murky affair has come to light, adding to the series of scandals related to the royal household,” he said.
Under Spanish law, the king is immune from prosecution for acts committed during his reign. A lawyer representing Mr d’Orleans Bourbon said his client had “no recollection” of the Barclays operation, adding that he “he has not received or is holding any money in representation of another person on the mentioned account”.
Spain’s Royal Household declined to make any comment. A spokesman for Barclays said the bank had no comment to make on the matter.